You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. Protesters rally against President Yoon Suk Yeol near his residence in Seoul in Friday. Tap the Play button at the top of any article to hear it read aloud. Blocked by bodyguards in an hourslong standoff, officials retreated without serving a court warrant to hold President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning on insurrection charges. When around 100 criminal investigators and police officers entered a hilly compound in central Seoul on Friday morning, they tried to achieve something that has...

Thousands of supporters of President Yoon Suk Yeol have been camped out for days on the pavement near his home in central Seoul, vowing to block anyone from trying to detain or arrest him. On Thursday evening, his supporters rallied near his home, calling his parliamentary impeachment “null and void.” They waved national flags and light batons and chanted: “Let’s protect Yoon Suk Yeol!” Mr. Yoon’s abrupt declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 triggered national outrage, prompting the opposition-dominant National Assembly to impeach him. But Mr. Yoon still had...

T of Jeju Air flight 2216 in South Korea captured the world’s imagination in the final days of 2024. The events leading to the loss of 179 souls—a bird strike followed by engine and perhaps landing-gear failure—seem terrifyingly random. “It could have been me” is a thought that doubtless passed through millions of minds. It will be months before the full story becomes clear, but such accidents usually end up being attributed to rare combinations of multiple factors. Investigations seek to unravel what happened; airlines and regulators then apply those...

A restaurant owner described witnessing the Jeju Air plane crash and recording videos as it happened. “Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing afterimages of the blast.” On the morning that the ill-fated Jeju Air flight was headed to its destination in southwestern South Korea, Lee Geun-young was near the airport, getting ready to open a restaurant serving mud-flat octopus, a local delicacy. Mr. Lee’s restaurant, along a road about 330 yards from Muan International Airport where the plane was about to land, has a clear view of...

A court in South Korea cleared the way for the police to detain President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning on Tuesday, as the authorities investigated whether his declaration of martial law this month, which plunged the country into political crisis, amounted to an insurrection. The court order stops short of a formal arrest warrant. The warrant issued on Tuesday only allowed investigators to detain him for questioning for a limited period of time; they need a separate warrant from a court to formally arrest him. But it is a sign...

The death toll for what amounted to be South Korea's most fatal plane crash in decades stands at 179 people on Monday, a day after the disaster gripped the nation already in intense political turmoil. The United States is now sending investigators to help determine what caused the Jeju Air plane to crash-land at Muan airport and slam into a concrete barrier on Sunday. Meanwhile, South Korean officials are combing through more than 600 body parts, and the stench of blood remains in the air at the crash site, the...