October 25: Kim Jong-un visits Dandong across the New Yalu River Bridge, iPhone duo durability controversy, FC Seoul wins for the first time in 10 years, Ahn Se-young wins 49 times in a row

North Korea's State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un made a surprise day-trip visit to Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, across the New Yalu River Bridge to mark the anniversary of the Chinese military's participation in the Korean War (Resist-U.S. Assistance Memorial Day). He met with Wang Huning, Chairman of the National People's Political Consultative Conference, the fourth-highest ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party, and highlighted the North Korea-China blood alliance and strategic cooperative relationship (SBS, Yonhap News). Kim Jong-un's surprise visit placed the Dandong area under a state of extreme tension for a day, and diplomatic circles are paying attention to whether this visit will lead to securing diplomatic leverage against US President Donald Trump and laying the groundwork for the resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the US. On Ruliweb, a post about Kim Joo-ae's succession structure analyzed by a former North Korean diplomat and defector recorded about 30,000 views, and on DVDPrime, a post about Kim Jong-un's reappearance recorded 4,115 times.

The security landscape surrounding the Ukraine war and Middle East conflict was also shaken. Shocked by Elon Musk's decision to arbitrarily restrict the Ukrainian military's access to Starlink (Starshield), U.S. allies entered into a race to build their own low-orbit satellite communication network to reduce dependence on specific private companies (Yonhap News). On Reddit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's remarks criticizing the gap in support from the West, saying that while 2,000 missiles were delivered to the Middle East in 48 hours, while only 24 missiles were delivered to Ukraine in 90 days, garnered attention. In the Middle East, Yemeni Houthi rebels attacked Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh airport and the East-West oil pipeline, engaging in a fierce battle with the Saudi military, resulting in many casualties.

In many European countries, large-scale street demonstrations continued despite bans on demonstrations and strong crackdowns. In France, even as armored vehicles were deployed in front of the Elysee Palace and 70,000 police officers were deployed across the country, protests against high prices were held throughout the country (Chosun Ilbo, Yonhap News), and in the primary for the leadership of the French far-right party National Union (RN), Marine Le Pen's successor, Jordan Bardella, was re-elected. In Spain, tens of thousands of people protested for guaranteed pensions, demanding bread, a roof, and freedom, and about 1,000 military and police personnel, including paratroopers, were deployed to anti-government protests in Milan, Italy.

U.S. energy experts have raised strong doubts about the economic feasibility of the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) development project, in which participation by Asian allies such as Korea is being discussed, saying it is an unrealistic project that requires paying twice the market price (Yonhap News). In monetary policy, the market outlook is gaining ground that even if the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) freezes the benchmark interest rate at next week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), it will begin an additional interest rate hike in December due to concerns about a re-ignition of inflation (Yonhap News).

There was a mixture of joy and sorrow in the domestic stock market and industry. Munhwa Ilbo analyzed that the decisive reason for KOSPI, which had plummeted nearly 4% during the day the previous day, to close higher at the last minute was the surge in stock price following SK Hynix's announcement of suspension of listing of its US subsidiary Solidigm, while POSCO's labor union declared the breakdown of wage negotiations and announced an indefinite strike from the 2nd of next month, raising concerns about disruption in the steel supply chain (Newspim). In addition, an analysis (Chosun Ilbo) pointed out the effectiveness of the policy of indiscriminately increasing regional industrial bases in a situation where the population is decreasing.

There was also a series of perceived price reactions in the people's economy and tourism and consumption fields. At Funny University, attention was drawn to recent articles (approximately 26,000 times) on how the market price of a national apartment (84㎡ only) in Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do has soared to just under 1.5 billion won (approximately 26,000 times), posts about a franchise brand that has raised its price by nearly 50% over the past 6 years (approximately 22,000 times), and eyewitness accounts of so-called kiosk beggars begging for payment in front of kiosks (approximately 26,000 times). Meanwhile, the Munhwa Ilbo report that foreign tourists who visited Korea after watching a K-drama posted complaints about their trip to Korea was 1.6 times more frequent than their trip to Japan, and Theku's post (approximately 51,000 times) also raised voices of self-reflection.

News of great records and wins poured in on domestic and international sports stages over the weekend. Professional soccer team FC Seoul won the K-League 1 title for the 7th time in 10 years since 2016, with the club's owner, GS Group Chairman Heo Tae-soo, visiting the stadium in person (Chosun Ilbo). Ahn Se-young, the world's No. 1 badminton women's singles player, continued her 49-game winning streak in international competitions and received rave reviews from overseas media, including Indonesia, telling her to just let Ahn play in the men's singles. In European soccer, Lee Kang-in, who missed the Champions League due to injury concerns, confirmed his return to the starting lineup in just four days (Chosun Ilbo).

Professional basketball (KBL), professional baseball, and volleyball were also hot. The Seoul Samsung Thunders, which had been in last place for five consecutive seasons, had Kerem Kanter and Chris McCullough combine for 48 points and ran for the first seven consecutive wins in the club's history, leaving them just one win away from tying the record for the longest opening winning streak in KBL history (Chosun Ilbo). In the professional volleyball cup tournament, the final match-up between Korean Air and Hyundai Capital was concluded, and the Samsung Lions, who are about to make the professional baseball playoffs, were saddened by the story (Chosun Ilbo) in which Kim Jae-yoon, the closer who was crowned relief king with 35 saves, left due to injury.

In the entertainment and culture world, an episode in which TVXQ's Changmin received a confirmation call from his credit card company while paying for a game drew laughter by recording about 68,000 views on The Q, an interview with actor Lee Jung-jae on Netflix's 10th anniversary in Korea (Kyunghyang Shinmun), the cumulative number of viewers for the animated film Chiikawa exceeded 2 million (KBS), and Yoo Jae-seok, who suffered the aftermath of the same-day recording cancellation, and Ive Ahn Yu-jin, who revealed her diet management. The news (Dong-A Ilbo) attracted attention. On the other hand, DC Inside (approximately 17,000 views) and Instiz (approximately 20,000 views) continued to contain follow-up posts about rapper Yang Hong-won, who was embroiled in controversy after revealing his affair and backlash just 5 days after his marriage.