This photo, provided by Dewey McLean, a U.S. veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War and currently geology professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and taken during the war, shows part of the well-preserved Fortress Wall, seen near Yongsan Middle School, on Mount Nam in Seoul. McLean served as a corporal for a transport unit of the U.S. 8th Army when he was stationed here from 1952-53. The 18.6-kilometer wall, which follows the ridges of four inner mountains surrounding the center of Seoul, was well-kept and underwent regular repairs throughout the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty. South Korea plans to apply for the ancient defensive wall to be given World Heritage Status in 2016. (Yonhap)
This undated photo, released on Oct. 10, 2015, by the Cultural Heritage Administration, shows a printing woodblock for the Collected Works of renowned Confucian scholar Toegye Yi Hwang, which is included in a set of Korea’s Confucian printing woodblocks that UNESCO has added to the “Memory of the World” list. The U.N. body also added to the list a decades-old local TV program to reunite families separated by the Korean War. The woodblocks are comprised of 64,226 pages of 718 kinds of books written by Confucian scholars during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), when the ideology served as the ruling philosophy. (Yonhap)
In this image captured from the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Oct. 8, 2015, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front) visits the northern free-trade city of Rason, which has been devastated by a flood caused by Typhoon Goni. The broadcaster did not report when he made the visit. Among Kim’s entourage was Ma Won-chun, director of the design department at the North’s powerful National Defense Commission in his first public appearance in a year to quell rumors of his purge. Kim reportedly purged Ma, who spearheaded the construction of a new airport terminal in Pyongyang which opened in July. (Yonhap)
Rescue workers take part in a drill at a peak of Mount Bukhan in northern Seoul on Oct. 8, 2015, simulating a victim hit by a mountain climbing-related accident. (Yonhap)
A mounted archer shoots an arrow during an international horseback archery competition in Sokcho on South Korea’s east coast on Oct. 2, 2015. (Yonhap)
In this photo taken on Oct. 1, 2015, a monument to the 1943 Cairo Declaration on Japan’s unconditional surrender and Korea’s independence stands at the Mena House Hotel in the Egyptian capital after it was unveiled during a ceremony, organized by the South Korean Embassy there. The monument has a central part of the declaration, issued by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, inscribed that reads, “Korea shall become free and independent.” The embassy held the event to mark the 20th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between South Korea and Egypt, and the 70th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. It also turned a spotlight on the declaration’s historic value. (Yonhap)
South Korean singer Ailee poses for a photo during a publicity event in Seoul on Sept. 30, 2015, to promote her first album “Vivid.” (Yonhap)
Orit Kopel (R), CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation, speaks during a press conference, held by the American Human Rights Foundation, in Seoul on Sept. 30, 2015, to urge South Korea’s parliament to approve a bill to promote human rights conditions in North Korea. (Yonhap)
This aerial photo shows an expressway running parallel to fields of ripe rice in the southwestern city of Jeongeup on Sept. 29, 2015, the last day of the Chuseok holiday that started on Sept. 26. Chuseok, which fell on Sept. 27 this year, is the season for family reunions, with Koreans traditionally offering a ritual feast to their ancestors on Aug. 15 of the lunar calendar. (Yonhap)
