時8.0 /an 2l wo ubiis asot uoeuaouoo s'd aeane jenuue juou aun eaiy yinos u m3 in 2024 to 17.1 μg/m3 in 2025. While major urban centers like Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Daejeon saw rising pollution levels, Gwangju and Incheon reported improvements. Notably, Gwangju's annual average dropped below 15 μg/m3 for the first time since 2017. Across the country, 135 cities saw rising PM2.5 levels, five remained unchanged, and 46 reported decreases.Four new ities were also included in2025that werenot present in 2024. city, a trend largely driven by a severe wildfire season that impacted the southeastern region. Despite these spikes, the country's highest PM2.5 levels remained concentrated in the northwest. Eight of the ten most polluted cites in South Korea were located in Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do provinces, underscoring the persistent geographic concentration of poor air quality in the industrial and densely populated northwestern corridor. significantly degrade air quality during spring and winter, while industrial activity, both particularly during winter months. To address this, the government has accelerated its energy transition, establishing a plan to retire all remaining coal-fired plants by 2040. From late March through mid-May 2025, South Korea was ravaged by a series of wildfires that scorched 43,330 acres and resulted in 24 fatalities.17 Although fires in the country are common during this period, the 2025 events were the deadliest the nation had experienced in decades. Fueled by prolonged drought and high velocity winds,the blazes blanketed vast areas in smoke, triggered mass evacuations, and displaced 30,000 people.18 Beyond the human toll, the fires caused irreparable cultural loss, destroying a 1,300-year-old Buddhist Annual hours spent at different PM2.5 pollution levels resin of the region's pine forests, creating an intensity that rendered conventional firebreaks and containment strategies ineffective.19