• Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on the penultimate trading day of 2024, after Wall Street declined on Friday.
• South Korea's industrial output contracted 0.7% on a monthly basis in November, more than the 0.4% decline expected by Reuters.
• The country witnessed its deadliest air disaster on Sunday that claimed 179 lives when a Jeju Air plane crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport, bursting into flames.

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on the penultimate trading day of this year, after Wall Street declined on Friday.

South Korea's Kospi declined 0.22% to close at 2,399.49, as the country grapples with political turmoil and downbeat industrial data, among other things. The small-cap Kosdaq, however, added 1.83% to end the trading day at 678.19.

The country witnessed its deadliest airline crash on Sunday that claimed 179 lives when a Jeju Air plane crashed into a wall at the Muan International Airport.

South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok has ordered an urgent safety inspection of the nation's airline operation system.

Shares of Jeju Air hit an all-time low Monday, according to FactSet data, closed 8.65% lower. Other Korean airlines' stocks were volatile. Korean Air fell 3%, budget airlines T'way Air and Jin Air fell 3.23% and 2.83%, respectively. Air Busan climbed over 3.14%.

South Korea's industrial output contracted 0.7% on a monthly basis in November, greater than the 0.4% decline expected by Reuters. On an annual basis, industrial output rose 0.1%, smaller than Reuters' expectations of a 0.4% climb. This compares to October's reading of a 6.3% increase.

The country's parliament on Dec. 27 voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo, not long after Yoon got impeached as a result of his brief martial law decree, which plunged the country into political turmoil. The country's investigation agency on Monday reportedly sought an arrest warrant for Yoon.

Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 0.96% to close at 39,894.54, while the Topix was fell 0.60% to close at 2,784.92.

Japan's factory activity contracted at a slower rate in December. The au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to 49.6 in December, coming in slightly above November's reading of 49.0 and marking the softest contraction in three months. However, the figure remained below the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction.

"The headline reading moved closer to neutrality amid softer reductions in both production and new order intakes," said Usamah Bhatti at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.2% as of its last hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 climbed 0.45% to close at 3,999.06.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.32% lower to close at 8,235.

Traders await China's manufacturing PMI on Tuesday, while markets will be closed on Wednesday for New Year's Day holiday.

U.S. stocks fell Friday, led by technology names, but major indexes still rose for the week.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 333.59 points, or 0.77%, to 42,992.21, falling for the first time in six sessions. The S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 5,970.84. The Nasdaq Composite slid 1.49% to 19,722.03, as Tesla dropped about 5% and Nvidia fell 2%.

—CNBC's Yun Li and Pia Singh contributed to this report.