4 January – A fishing boat sinks after hitting rocks off the coast of Gageodo, killing three people on board.[3]
8 January – Former Democratic Party of Korea leader Song Young-gil is sentenced to two years' imprisonment for accepting illegal political funding from seven businesspeople.[4]
10 January – Park Chong-jun resigns as head of the Presidential Security Service amid an investigation into the agency's role in obstructing President Yoon's arrest on 3 January.[5]
14 January –
At least 43 vehicles figure in a pileup caused by icy conditions along the Seoul-Munsan Expressway near Goyang, injuring nine people.[6]
15 January – Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol: Yoon Suk Yeol becomes the first sitting president of South Korea to be arrested following his imposition of martial law in December.[8]
17 January – South Korea opens an embassy in Cuba for the first time.[9]
21 January – A civilian employee of the Korea Defense Intelligence Command is sentenced by a court-martial to 20 years' imprisonment for providing information on undercover South Korean military agents to a suspected Chinese agent in return for 400 million won.[11]
22 January – The government announces a reduction in subsidies to biomass enterprises and an end to supporting the construction of new biomass plants amid criticism over its impact on deforestation.[12]
23 January –
The Constitutional Court votes 4-4 to reject the impeachment of Korea Communications Commission chair Lee Jin-sook, who had been impeached by the National Assembly on 2 August 2024 for administrative abuses.[13]
Three people, including a Filipino-Canadian national, are arrested for processing and attempting to sell 61 kilograms of cocaine valued at 30 billion won ($24 million) from a warehouse in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, in what is described as the largest cocaine-related crime in South Korea.[14]
24 January – The government issues revisions to the Wildlife Protection and Management Act that include a ban on bear farming and feeding feral pigeons and other animals considered pests.[16]
26 January – Yoon Suk Yeol becomes the first sitting president of South Korea to be indicted following his imposition of martial law in December, with charges of insurrection and abuse of power being filed against him.[17]
Two fishing vessels run aground off the coast of Jeju Island, killing two people and leaving two others missing.[19]
A fire breaks out at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, injuring one firefighter. No damage is recorded to the museum's collection.[20]
4 February – The Seoul High Court overturns the conviction of former Ulsan mayor Song Cheol-ho and former city police chief Hwang Un-ha for election interference over a conspiracy to engineer an investigation against a rival during the 2018 South Korean local elections.[21]
9 February – A fishing vessel sinks off the coast of Habaek Island near Yeosu, killing four people and leaving five others missing.[25]
10 February –
One person is killed in the explosion of an oil storage tank in Ulsan.[26]
An eight-year old girl is fatally stabbed at an elementary school in Daejeon, with a teacher confessing to the killing.[27]
12 February – A fishing vessel capsizes off the coast of Jeju Island, leaving five crew members missing.[28]
13 February – A fishing vessel catches fire off the coast of Buan County, leaving six crew members missing.[29]
14 February –
Footballer Hwang Ui-jo is sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence for secretly filming sexual encounters with three different women.[30]
Six people are killed in a fire at an under-construction resort in Busan.[31]
A man is arrested for attempting to storm the Chinese embassy in Seoul to carry out an attack.[32]
16 February – Actress Kim Sae-ron is found dead in her home in Seoul in what police rule to be a suicide.[33][34]
17 February – The government suspends the local service of the Chinese artificial intelligence application DeepSeek, citing data collection concerns.[35]
Four officials of the Moon Jae-in administration, namely former national security adviser and Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong; former presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min, former National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon, and former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul are convicted and sentenced to suspended prison terms of up to ten months by the Seoul Central District Court over the forced repatriation of two North Korean fishermen who had killed 16 of their colleagues in the Sea of Japan in 2019.[39]
20 February – The criminal trial of Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law declaration begins in Seoul, making him the first incumbent president of South Korea to stand trial in a criminal case.[40]
25 February –
A bridge being built as part of the Seoul-Sejong City expressway collapses in Anseong, killing four workers.[41]
A man is shot dead by police in Gwangju after stabbing an officer.[43]
Hyundai Rotem wins a 2.2 trillion-won (US$1.53 billion) contract to supply advanced trains to the Moroccan national railway operator ONCF.[44]
27 February –
The Constitutional Court rules that acting President Choi Sang-mok's decision to withhold the appointment of Ma Eun-hyuk as a justice in the Constitutional Court violated the National Assembly's right to elect a justice to the court but dismisses a petition to have Ma appointed immediately.[45]
The Ministry of Unification dismisses Cho Min-ho as president of the Korea Hana Foundation supporting North Korean defectors amid allegations of him sexually and verbally harassing employees.[46]
A taxi crashes into a wall in Ulju, Ulsan, killing four people.[49]
7 March – The Seoul Central District Court cancels President Yoon's arrest warrant, citing procedural flaws.[50] He is released the next day.[51]
13 March – The Constitutional Court votes 8-0 to reject the impeachment of Board of Audit and Inspection chair Choe Jae-hae, who had been impeached by the National Assembly in December 2024 for failing to adequately review suspected irregularities regarding the 2022 relocation of the presidential office and residence.[52]
The United States Department of Energy includes South Korea on the lowest level of its Sensitive and Other Designated Countries List effective 15 April, prompting concerns over bilateral cooperation on technological affairs.[54]
17 March – A military drone crashes into a parked helicopter while landing at an airbase in Yangju, causing a fire that destroys the latter aircraft.[55]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission finds the government responsible for facilitating a program in the 1970s and 1980s that saw 200,000 children being sent abroad for adoption through processes that involved abuse and fraud.[64]
2 April – Authorities announce the seizure of two tons of cocaine valued at 1 trillion won (US$679.6 million) from a Norwegian-flagged vessel that arrived at Gangneung from Mexico via Ecuador, Panama and China, in what is deemed the biggest drug bust in terms of weight in South Korea by the Korea Customs Service.[68]
A group of North Korean soldiers enter the South Korean side of the eastern section of the DMZ, prompting warning shots from South Korean forces that force them to retreat.[73]
21 April – An apartment building in Gwanak-gu, Seoul is burned, killing the suspect and injuring six.[81]
22 April – One person is killed and another is injured in a knife attack at a supermarket near Mia station in Seoul. A suspect is arrested.[82]
24 April – Former president Moon Jae-in is indicted for corruption over allegations that he had facilitated the employment of his former son-in-law at Eastar Jet, in exchange for the airline's founder, Lee Sang-jik, being appointed as head of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency.[83]
28 April – Six people are injured in a knife attack carried out by a student inside a high school in Cheongju.[84]
11 May – Han Duck-soo ends his presidential campaign following a failed attempt to make him the official candidate of the People Power Party despite the previous nomination of Kim Moon-soo.[93]
15 May – Academician Choi Jung-wha becomes the first Korean woman to be awarded the Officier grade of the French Legion of Honour for her contributions towards promoting France-South Korea relations.[94]
17 May – A massive fire breaks out a manufacturing plant of Kumho Tire in Gwangju, triggering a nationwide firefighting mobilization order.[95]
19 May – Two people are killed while two others are injured in a stabbing spree in Siheung.[96]
22 May – Four people, including the perpetrator and three police officers, are injured in a knife attack in Paju.[97]
27 May – Former acting presidents Han Duck-soo and Choi Sang-mok are barred from leaving the country as part of criminal investigations into Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection case relating to his martial law declaration.[98]
28 May – A strike is held by the Busan bus drivers' union demanding a wage increase, causing transport disruptions in the city until an agreement is reached in the afternoon.[99]