Michelle Ye Hee Lee

Mar 8, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Michelle Ye Hee Lee

SEOUL — South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday was released from jail, where he was being held while he faces a criminal trial on charges of insurrection for declaring martial law last December. The Seoul Central District Court on Friday ordered Yoon’s release, siding with his lawyers that there was a procedural error in detaining him. Prosecutors had one week to appeal the court’s ruling, but on Saturday declined to do so.

Feb 14, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Michelle Ye Hee Lee

SEOUL — South Korea’s likely next leader would support President Donald Trump’s efforts to restart dialogue with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — and would even consider nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize if there was a significant breakthrough, signaling a sharp change from Seoul’s current hard-line approach toward Pyongyang.

Feb 8, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Michelle Ye Hee Lee |Julia Mio Inuma |Hiroki Kobayashi |Yutao Chen

Hiroki Kobayashi and February 8, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. ESTJust nowAWASHIMA ISLAND, Japan — There are two post offices on this remote Japanese island of 150 or so residents. Only one delivers mail to the living. The other hasn’t been officially operational in three decades. Instead, the “Missing Post Office” is a repository for 60,000-plus pieces of mail: letters, birthday cards and New Year’s greetings sent from all over Japan to those with no forwarding address.

Feb 7, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Michelle Ye Hee Lee |Shannon Osaka |Jake Spring |Tony Romm |Maegan Vazquez |Jacqueline Alemany

President Donald Trump plans to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to the White House on Friday for a visit that will include a joint news conference. The agenda for their meeting is expected to include trade and the economic and security threats posed by China and North Korea. Later Friday, Trump is scheduled to travel to Florida, where he plans to host a dinner with Senate Republicans to discuss a path forward on his budget priorities.

Jan 27, 2025 | washingtonpost.com | Michelle Ye Hee Lee

SEOUL — South Korean air accident investigators are narrowing in on two factors — birds that hit both engines and a concrete structure at the end of the airport runway — as likely to have caused the devastating Jeju Air crash last month that killed all but two of the 181 people on board. The exact cause of the fatal crash remains unclear, and the investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board is ongoing.