Family members of the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol embrace in tears outside the Supreme Court in Seoul on Nov. 12, 2015, after the top court upheld the life sentence for the ferry’s captain Lee Jun-seok for murder. The Sewol sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, killing 304 passengers aboard, mostly high school students on an excursion. The court said Lee willfully neglected to evacuate the passengers. (Yonhap)
The photo dated 1965 shows a car manufacturing factory operated by Shinjin Automobiles, which produced vehicles locally with complete knockdown kits brought in from Toyota. The National Archives of Korea released it and other old photos on Nov. 11, 2015 to give a glimpse of the country’s past 70 years. (Yonhap)
Yuju, a member of girl group GFriend, poses with her test identification slip in front of Gwanak High School in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo Ward on Nov. 12, 2015, before entering the school to sit for the state-administrated scholastic aptitude test. Some 630,000 students nationwide are taking the test to enter college in the spring semester that begins in March. (Yonhap)
Members of South Korea’s underwater demolition team (UDT) show martial art moves during a demonstration marking the UDT’s 60th anniversary in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 5, 2015. (Yonhap)
This photo dated June 26, 1957, shows fishermen aboard the Jinam-ho, South Korea’s first overseas fishing boat, ahead of a voyage. People like them had served as an economic pillar for the country during hard times, sending home money earned from their catch. Government estimates show they remitted some US$87 million to South Korea from 1966-1987. Many of the fishermen died in foreign waters, and the fisheries ministry started a campaign in 2014 to bring back their remains. (Photo provided by the Korea Overseas Fisheries Association) (Yonhap)
Park So-dam, a leading actress in “The Priests,” poses for photos ahead of an interview in Seoul on Nov. 6, 2015. Park plays a young woman whom the priests try to save through exorcism when she suffers from unexplainable symptoms after a runaway car accident. The film drew 190,000 viewers on its opening day on Nov. 5, the biggest crowd for a movie released in the first week of November. (Yonhap)
French President Francois Hollande (R) confers France’s highest decoration, the Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honor, on Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho at a Seoul hotel on Nov. 4, 2015, in this photo released by the South Korean business group. (Yonhap)
Parents of college aspirants gather to offer a Buddhist prayer in front of “Gatbawi” Buddhist statue (upper), or Stone Hat Buddha, on Mount Palgong in the southeastern city of Gyeongsan on Nov. 1, 2015, to wish for high scores on the state-administered annual scholastic aptitude test scheduled for Nov. 12. The crucial test is seen as a deciding factor in an applicant’s choice of college and subsequent career. (Yonhap)
An excavator dismantles facilities on the roof of the former Japanese Embassy, built in 1976, in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2015, as the embassy has implemented a project to rebuild its building, scheduled for completion by 2020. The embassy has been running operations at a nearby building since July 2015. (Yonhap)
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo (L, front) and his U.S. counterpart, Ashton Carter (R, front), joined by Gen. Lee Sun-jin (L, rear), the South Korean chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his U.S. counterpart, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, review a guard of honor as they take part in a welcome ceremony at the defense ministry in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2015, ahead of this year’s Security Consultative Meeting, an annual defense meeting between the two allies. (Yonhap)
