Pohang:Seoul Several significant events in Korean history are commemorated on October 16. Dr. Rhee Syng-man made his return to Korea in 1945 after years of exile in the United States. This return came two months following Japan's surrender, which ended its colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Rhee would later become South Korea's first president three years after his return.

According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia in 1962. In 1979, the Seongsu Bridge across the Han River in Seoul was opened to the public.

In 1999, the South Korean Army's Evergreen Unit sent a 160-member advance team to East Timor as part of United Nations peacekeeping operations. This deployment occurred in the context of East Timor's struggle for independence from Indonesian occupation, which began in 1975 and concluded with Timor's independence in 2002.

In 2000, South Korea and the United States reached an agreement to extend the range of South Korean-made missiles to 300 kilometers during a military meeting held in Washington.

In a notable maritime incident in 2008, crew members of a South Korean-flagged vessel were released after being captured by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The vessel had been seized on September 10, and it carried 22 crew members, including eight South Koreans and 14 Burmese.

Tragically, in 2013, a Panamanian-registered cargo ship named the CHENG LUI 15 sank off the eastern coast of South Korea, resulting in the loss of nine foreign crew members. The vessel, which was carrying 19 sailors, went down 900 meters off the southeastern port city of Pohang.

In 2018, a historic meeting took place when South Korea, North Korea, and the United Nations Command held their first trilateral consultations focused on disarming the Joint Security Area located in the heavily fortified border region.