Seoul:Several important events in Korean history have been marked on October 24 over the years. Notably, in 1974, a significant free press campaign was launched by journalists at the Donga Ilbo, a major South Korean newspaper. The campaign was a protest against government censorship and surveillance under the authoritarian Park Chung-hee administration and led to the dismissal of nearly 180 reporters and photographers from the paper.

According to Yonhap News Agency, another notable event occurred in 1994 when Cho Chang-ho, a South Korean who had been taken prisoner during the Korean War, returned home via China after spending 43 years in captivity in North Korea. He was the first Korean War prisoner to successfully escape from North Korea.

Further historical milestones include the signing of a free trade agreement between South Korea and Chile in 2002 and an announcement in 2003 by the South Korean defense ministry that 1,186 soldiers were held as prisoners in North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

In 2005, North Korea confirmed its participation in six-party talks aimed at resolving its nuclear weapons program dispute, maintaining its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Three years later, in 2008, South Korea, China, Japan, and the member states of ASEAN agreed to create an $80 billion joint fund to combat a regional financial crisis.

In 2013, North Korea made a humanitarian gesture by returning six South Koreans who had been detained for illegally entering the country, along with the body of a deceased spouse of one of the detainees. Fast forward to 2017, the initial flame for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games torch relay was lit in Greece, 108 days before the international sports event commenced in South Korea.

Most recently, in 2023, four North Koreans defected to South Korea by crossing the eastern inter-Korean maritime border on a wooden boat.