It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go. The streets glisten with light to fill every heart with delight - but it's a bitter feeling to remember that not everyone is having a Merry Christmas.

As always, banners, pickets and rallies hold their place on the streets of Seoul. It is the voice of the victims asking for a legitimate apology and compensation, and the socially underprivileged who have been forgotten in the blind spot of welfare; crying out for us to remember them. I dare think that for them the winter cold is a sign of Christmas with a hint of despair. This means that another year is passing by, waiting for the perpetrators and the government to take responsibility. The bright streetlights don't seem to be shining warmly upon them. Sometimes I fear that the lights might even hide them in the deepened shadows. As journalists we plow on to speak out for the forgotten. Along with delivering the pleasant end-of-the-year atmosphere, we intended to shed light on social problems that have not been solved – from the lingering Itaewon disaster aftermath to the Israel-Hamas war taking place on the other side of the globe. By that we hope you can see the streets of Christmas with a wider and warmer view.

As you know, Christmas is the day Christians believe Jesus was born, the day promising blessings to all mankind. So do I hope for a ‘peace on Earth to the men of good will (et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis)’. Though I don’t believe in the ‘God in the highest,’ I’d rather hope that we can at least be each other’s savior-for-the-day through our good intentions. Hopefully the warmth we share with those living on the fringes will make everyone’s Christmas.