Timeline Korea: South Korea
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Korean War Facts: www.usa-people-search.com/content-facts-of-the-korean-war.aspx
2333BC
Go-Chosun (Kojoson) refers to
the Korean Empire founded by Tangun in 2333 BC that succeeded the first
kingdoms of Hwan Gook (7,197 BC) and Bae Dal (3,898 BC) (also known as
Gu Ri). The people of Go-Chosun were referred to by the Chinese as "the
eastern bowmen." Chosun means "The Land of the Morning Calm."
(www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chosun)(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
400BC- 250AD The Yayoi culture is identified by its
pottery. Mongoloid people from Korea entered Japan and mixed with the
older Jomon populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34,38)
c100BC The Shilla Dynasty began in southeastern Korea
and grew to become a top-heavy feudal system that covered most of South
Korea for almost 900 years.
(SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)
37BCE-448CE The Koguryo kingdom straddled what is now North Korea and
part of South Korea and the northeastern Chinese region of Manchuria.
It spread Buddhism throughout the region.
(AP, 2/1/04)
37BC-668CE The Koguryo kingdom (Gaogouli in Chinese)
flourished during this time. At its height the territory stretched from
central Manchuria to south of Seoul, Korea. It was later taught to be
one of Korea’s three founding kingdoms.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
49 The Puyo tribe, living along
the Sungari River in Manchuria, had their chief recognized as a wang
(king) by the Chinese. Koguryo developed into a state during the long
reign of Taejo that began four years later.
(www.san.beck.org/3-10-Koreato1875.html)
227-248 King Tongchon ruled Korea during this period.
(AM, 7/05, p.13)
244 The Chinese state of Wei sent
a force of 20,000 and took the Koguryo capital while the Puyo made an
alliance by supplying the Chinese troops.
(www.san.beck.org/3-10-Koreato1875.html)
250-710CE The Japanese Kofun period. Mongoloid people
from Korea continued to enter Japan and mixed with the older Jomon
populations.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
300-400CE Historian Egami Namio in 1948 proposed the
"horserider" thesis that cited equestrian goods and foreign culture
elements as evidence that the ancestors of the Japanese imperial line
had migrated from Korea about this time and conquered the northern part
of Kyushu.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)
500-700CE Chronicles of the 8th century record the
peaceful arrival of immigrants from Korea in the 6th and 7th centuries.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.38)
538-552 Introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)
578 Prince Shotuku brought a
family from Korea to Osaka and had them build a Buddhist temple. The
temple took 15 years to build and the Kongo family became established
as the premier temple builders in Japan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)
615 Yang Di (Yangdi), a Chinese
Sui emperor, announced a 4th attempt to conquer Korea. In response to
peasant rebellions in the north, Yangdi moved to the eastern city of
Yangzhou.
(ON, 5/06, p.1)
727 Houei-tch’ao, a Korean
pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)
c800-900 Peasant uprisings led to the establishment
of 2 rival states.
(SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)
918-1392 During Korea's Age of Enlightenment, the
period of the Goryeo Dynasty, the Buddhist aristocracy commissioned
many works of art to further the Buddhist ideal.
(SFC, 10/14/03, p.D1)
935 The last Shilla king
surrendered his throne.
(SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)
1162-1227 Genghis Khan was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu
mountains north of Ulan Bator. His given name was Temujin, "the
ironsmith." He seized control over 5 million square miles that covered
China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most of Korea and Russia. "In
Search of Genghis Khan" is a book by Tim Severin. He was succeeded by
his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Ogedai ignored numerous
pleas from his brother Chaghatai to cut down on his drinking and died
of alcoholism as did Guyuk.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-10)(WUD, 1994, p. 591)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R6)
1281 Aug 14, During the second
Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, Kublai Khan's invading fleet
disappeared in typhoon off of Japan. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea
had joined an armada with 120,000 men from southern China landing at
Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed their fleet leaving them to death
or slavery.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(EWH, 4th ed., p.369)(MC,
8/14/02)
1310 In Korea a hanging silk
scroll was painted with an image of Avalokiteshvara.
(SFC, 10/14/03, p.D1)
1329 In Korea a foundry was used
to print books with metal type.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1377 In Korea Jikjisimgyeong, a
Buddhist scripture, was printed with the world’s first movable metal
type.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.17)
1392 The Chosun Dynasty was
established. In 2005 Yi Ku (73), the son of Korea's last crown prince,
died alone of a heart attack in Japan. He was the last member of the
Chosun dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392 until 1910.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.C18)(AP, 7/24/05)
1394 Seoul, Korea, was founded.
The city celebrated its 600th anniversary in 1994.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1398 In South Korea a wooden
structure at the top of the Namdaemun gate formed part of a wall that
encircled the Seoul. The two-tiered wooden structure was renovated in
the 1960s, when it was declared South Korea's top national treasure. In
2008 a fire destroyed the 610-year-old structure.
(AP, 2/11/08)
1441 In Korea King Sejong called
for better water management in his agricultural based economy and
Yeong-sil Jang responded with the first rain gauge.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.17)
1446 Oct 9, The Korean alphabet,
created under the aegis of King Sejong, was first published.
(AP, 10/9/07)
1495 In Korea King Yonsan-gun
succeeded King Songjong. His reign was noted for his unscrupulous
suppression of the literati. In 2005 the South Korean film industry
produced “The King and the Clown.” It was based on the 15th century
monarch and a troupe of entertainers invited to his court.
(www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/history/early_choson_period.htm)(Econ,
2/18/06, p.44)
1506 King Chungjong (r.1506-1544)
began his rule in Korea. He restored Confucian rule with the support of
officials who had deposed King Yongsan-gun.
(www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/history/early_choson_period.htm)
1562 In Korea Im Kkok-chong, a
righteous outlaw who rose up against the greedy officials and
distributed it to the poor, was caught and beheaded. His chivalry and
revolutionary ideas captured the admiration of the people and inspired
the popular novel: “Hong Kil-tong chon, the Tale of Hong Kil-Tong,”
written in the early 17th century by the scholar Ho Kyun.
(www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/history/early_choson_period.htm)
1591 Korean Admiral Yi Sun Sin
(1545-1598) developed his ironclad "turtle ships.” They were
characterized by multiple canons and a fully covered deck designed to
deflect cannon fire and keep enemy combatants from boarding.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.17)
1592 Toyotomi Hideyoshi
sent an army to invade Korea after Korea refused to help him invade
China. This set off a war that lasted 6 years.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p.
215)(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1592 Korea defenders led by Gen.
Jeong Mun-bu scored a victory over an invading Japanese army at
Bukgwan. A monument with a description of the fight was raised a
century later. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 a Japanese
general shipped the monument to Japan where it was set in the Yasukuni
shrine. It was recognized by a South Korean in 1978 and in 2005 Shinto
priests agreed to return it to Seoul.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.46)
1592-1598 Korean Adm. Yi Sun Sin (1545-1598) employed
his ironclad "turtle ships" to fight off an invasion by Japan.
Hundreds of Japanese vessels were sunk during the prolonged Japanese
invasion.
(www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/455711)
1676 Jeong Seon (d.1759), Korean
landscape painter, was born.
(SFC, 11/5/03, p.D2)
1735 Lady Hyegyong was born in
Korea. At age 9-10 she married Crown Prince Sado (~10), who was
murdered by his father, King Yongjo, in 1762. Hyegyônggung Hong
Ssi later authored her memoir “Hanjungnok.”
(Econ, 9/11/04,
p.79)(www.financial-book-review.com)
1808 Yi Eung-nok, Korean court
painter, was born.
(SFC, 3/11/03, p.D1)
1866 Aug 31, In Korea the US trade
ship USS General Sherman ignored demands to turn back on the Taedong
River, took hostages and fired on civilians. A 4-day battle followed in
which all of the crew were killed.
(AH, 10/07,
p.57)(www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/General_Sherman_incident)
1871 Jun 1, Korea’s Yongdu
Fortress fired at a US fleet as it sailed up the Ganghwa Straits, which
leads to the Han river. Some 650 Marines launched the first US invasion
of Korea following a failed attempt by diplomats to open the Hermit
Kingdom to trade. In the end, the Americans won the battle militarily,
but lost diplomatically.
(www.shinmiyangyo.org/nsynopsis.html)(AH, 10/07,
p.57)
1875 Mar 26, Syngman Rhee,
President of South Korea (1948-60), was born. [see Apr 26]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1875 Apr 26, Syngman Rhee, Pres.
of South Korea (1948-60), was born. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 4/26/98)(MC, 4/26/02)
1882 The US and Korea signed the
Chemulpo Treaty, which pledged perpetual peace and friendship between
the President of the US and King Kojong (1852-1919) of Chosen and their
respective people.
(AH, 10/07,
p.56)(www.asianresearch.org/articles/1623.html)
1894 Jul 23, Japanese troops took
over the Korean imperial palace in Seoul.
(AP, 7/23/97)(HN, 7/23/98)
1894 Jul 25, Japanese forces sank
the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements
to Korea.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1894 Aug 1, The First
Sino-Japanese War erupted, the result of a dispute over control of
Korea; Japan's army routed the Chinese.
(AP, 8/1/04)
1895 Apr 17, China and Japan
signed the peace treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over
control of the Korean peninsula.
(HN, 4/17/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)
1895 Apr 23, Russia, France, and
Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1895 May 8, China ceded Taiwan to
Japan under the Apr 17 Treaty of Shimonoseki. This followed a war over
control of the Korean peninsula.
(HN, 5/8/98)(Econ, 1/15/05, Survey p.4)
1901 Nov 25, Japanese Prince Ito
arrived in Russia to seek concessions in Korea.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1902 Mar 20, France and Russia
acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but asserted their right to
protect their interests in China and Korea.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1904 Jan 5, American Marines
arrived in Seoul, Korea to guard U.S. legation there.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1904 Jan 6, A Japanese railway in
Korea refused to transport Russian troops.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1904 Feb 4, Russia offered Korea
to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1904 Feb 9, Japanese troops landed
near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1904 Feb 23, Japan guaranteed
Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1904 Mar 15, Three hundred
Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1904 Mar 24, Vice Adm. Tojo sank
seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port
Arthur.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1904 Aug 6, The Japanese army in
Korea surrounded a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1904 Sep 19, Gen. Nogi assaulted
Port Arthur: 16,000 Japanese casualties.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1904 Nov 28, The pivotal capture
by the Japanese of 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur occurred
during the bloodiest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The
battle of November 28-December 5, 1904, resulted in Japanese forces
taking the strategic 203 Meter Hill, allowing them to bombard and sink
the Russian fleet in the harbor at Port Arthur. Russia
surrendered the city of Port Arthur to Japan on January 1, 1905.
(HNQ, 9/20/99)
1904 Dec 5, Japanese destroyed
Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1904 Dec 16, Japanese warships
quit Port Arthur in order to cut off the Russian Baltic fleet’s advance.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed the
volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and Korea,
where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally incorporated
Dokdo as its territory through an administrative measure of one of its
prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of War
William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt,
and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement, which
reinforced American and Japanese influence and spelled doom for Korean
sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere in the ongoing US rape of
the Philippines in return for the US agreement not to interfere with
Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Japan imposed protectorate
status on Korea. Hirobumi Ito was installed in Seoul as resident
general and took charge of all governmental affairs. Japan named Durham
White Stevens as the foreign advisor to Kojong.
(AH, 10/07, p.56)
1907 In Korea some dozen civilian
leaders started a national campaign to raise money to ease the national
debt to Japan, which was its colonial ruler. About 1/6th of the total
debt was donated.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8)
1907 In Korea the Righteous Army
under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul
and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could
not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no
match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by
warships moored near Inchon. The doomed revolt ultimately left some
14,000 Koreans dead as well as 160 Japanese.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_army)(AH,
10/07, p.57)
1908 Mar 23, In San Francisco
Durham White Stevens (56), Japan’s foreign advisor to Korea, was shot
by a Korean nationalist. Stevens died 2 days later from internal
injuries. Chang In Hwan and Chun Myung Un had attacked Stevens as he
approached the ferry landing. Chun was released from prison in June,
1908, and fled the country. Chang was convicted of 2nd degree
manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was paroled after
10 years.
(AH, 10/07, p.54-58)
1908 George Trumbull Ladd,
president of Yale Univ., authored “In Korea with Marquis Ito.” Ladd
endorsed Japan’s protectorate status over Korea whose people he
described as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.
(AH, 10/07, p.57)
1909 Oct 26, Hirobumi Ito
(b.1841), Japan’s resident general in Seoul, was gunned down in Harbin
in Russian-controlled Manchuria by Korean assassin Chang Ahn Gun.
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)
1909 In the Kando convention Japan
gave China a chunk of Korean Manchuria in return for concessions.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.8)
1910 Jun 24, The Japanese army
invaded Korea.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1910 Aug 22, Japan annexed Korea
following 5 years as a protectorate and ruled for 35 years.
(WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-1)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(AP,
8/22/06)
1910 The Chosun Dynasty ended when
the Japanese deposed the royal family after a 518-year reign. King
Sunjong was the final ruler. The occupational force allowed the
monarchy to retain its ceremonial court for several years.
(SFC, 5/9/01, p.C18)
1910-1945 Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)
1910-1955 http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/eyewit.htm
1918 Nov 9, Choi Hong Hi (d.2002),
one of the founders of the South Korean Army (1946), was born in North
Korea. He developed the tae kwon do (to kick with the foot, to strike
with the fist, art) martial arts style in the 1940s and named it in
1955.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1919 Mar 1, The Korean coalition
proclaimed their independence from Japan.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1930s Korea’s Samsung Group began
as a trucking company.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A6)
1937 Korean guerrillas allegedly
led by Kim Il Sung clashed with Japanese colonizer in the Battle of
Bocheonbo.
(WSJ, 1/14/03, p.A10)
South Korea
1940s The Korean government of
Syngman Rhee fought a guerrilla war with indigenous left wing elements
in the late 1940s.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)
1943 Slave laborers at the
Japanese NKK Corp. went on strike. Kim Kyung Suk (16) of Korea was
hanged from a ceiling by company employees and beaten with wooden and
bamboo swords for leading the strike against the steel giant. Suk filed
suit in 1991 and was awarded $33,900 in compensation in 1999.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)
1945 Aug 8, The Soviet Union
declared war against Japan. 1.5 million Soviet troops launched a
massive surprise attack (August Storm) against Japanese occupation
forces in northern China and Korea. Within days, Tokyo's million-man
army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military
defeats in history.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A19)(AP, 8/8/97)(AP, 8/6/05)
1945 Aug 15, Korea was
liberated after nearly 40 years of Japanese colonial rule, but it
soon faced the tragic division of the North and South along the 38th
parallel.
(www.koreanconsulate.on.ca/en/?mnu=a06b03)(SFC,
6/17/00, p.A9)
1945 Aug 24, A blast aboard a
Japanese Navy transport carrying 4,000 Koreans home killed at least 524
Koreans and 25 Japanese crew members in Maizuru port in Kyoto. In 2001
a Japanese court awarded $375,000 to 15 Korean survivors of the
explosion.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A16)
1945 Sep 8, Korea was partitioned
by the Soviet Union and the United States. The US invaded Japanese-held
Korea.
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1945 Sep 9, The Japanese in S.
Korea, Taiwan, China and Indochina surrendered to Allies.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1945 Dec 27, Foreign ministers
from the former Allied nations of the United States, the Soviet Union,
and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea into two separate occupation
zones and to govern the nation for five years.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1946 Choi Hong Hi (1918-2002),
helped found the South Korean Army. He developed the tae kwon do (to
kick with the foot, to strike with the fist, art) martial arts style in
the 1940s and named it in 1955.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1948 Jul 20, Syngman Rhee (b.1875)
was elected president of South Korea. He served to 1960.
(HN, 4/26/98)(MC, 4/26/02)(MC, 7/20/02)
1948 Aug 15, The Republic of Korea
(South Korea) declared independence.
(AP, 8/15/97)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.16)
1948 Dec 8, UN approved the
recognition of South Korea.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1948 Some 14,000 people were
killed during a government crackdown on a leftist uprising. Fighting
between leftist guerrillas and government forces took place on the
southern island of Jeju and estimates of those killed ranged from
several to 50 thousand.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A9)
1949 Jun 28, The last U.S. combat
troops were called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
(HN, 6/28/98)(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W8)
1949 Jun 29, US troops withdrew
from Korea after WW II. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/29/02)
1949 Oct 6, China and Korea
established diplomatic relations. Korea became one of the first groups
of countries having diplomatic relations with new China.
(www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/yzs/gjlb/2701/default.htm)
1950 Jan 12, Sec. of State Dean
Acheson in a speech placed South Korea and Formosa outside the US
defense perimeter in Asia. Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, and the
Aleutians were inside the perimeter to be defended.
(WSJ, 5/26/00,
p.W8)(http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/acheson.html)
1950 Mar 1, Kim Soo-im (b.1911), a
former US-employed assistant and lover to provost marshal Col. John E.
Baird, was arrested by South Korean police, joining thousands of others
ensnared in President Syngman Rhee's roundups of leftists — workers and
writers, teachers, peasants and others with suspect politics. She was
soon tried and executed in June by South Korea as an alleged spy.
(AP, 8/17/08)
1950 Jun 25, The Korean War
started as forces from the communist North invaded the South. It lasted
till 1953. A Truman administration statement that Korea was “outside
the US defense perimeter” in the Pacific was said to have invited the
attack. Gen. McArthur led a UN expeditionary force in response to North
Korea’s attack on South Korea. The Chinese entered the war and the UN
forces were pushed into a Christmas retreat. 2.5 million people were
killed. No peace treaty was ever signed. About 1.7 million Americans
were involved and there was an estimated 3 mil casualties including
150,000 (54,246) Americans and over 1 mil Chinese. In 1990 North
Korean officials revealed that Stalin knew about and encouraged North
Korea’s aggression as did Mao Tse-Tung.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.255)(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A15)(SFC,
4/8/96, p.A-9)(SFEM, 11/10/96, p.12)(SFC, 2/17/96, p.A26)(AP,
6/25/97)(WSJ, 7/21/97, p.A22)
1950 Jun 26, President Truman
authorized the US Air Force and Navy to enter the Korean conflict.
(AP, 6/26/07)
1950 Jun 27, North Koreans troop
reached Seoul. UN Security Council called on members for troops to aid
South Korea.
(HN, 6/27/98)(MC, 6/27/02)
1950 Jun 28, The South Korean
government blew up the Han River Bridge, the southern escape route for
many Seoul residents, just hours before the North Koreans arrived.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.A13)
1950 Jun-1950 Jul, The government
of Syngman Rhee arrested tens of thousands due to fear that leftists
would collaborate with the North Koreans sweeping down the peninsula.
Rhee ordered the murders of thousands of political opponents and some
of their mass graves were not found until the late 1990s.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 6/5/00, p.A32)(AP, 7/6/08)
1950 Jul 20, US planes strafed
refugees south of Yusong.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A12)
1950 Jul 23, American soldiers
ordered villagers from Chu Gok Ri and warned them of approaching North
Koreans. The villagers fled to Im Ke Ri.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A8)
1950 Jul 24-1950 Jul 27, US orders
in the 25th Infantry Division were issued to treat civilians in the
Korea battle zone as enemy.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A8)
1950 Jul 25, Top staff officers of
the US 8th Army, Muccio's representative Harold J. Noble and South
Korean officials met and decided on a policy of air-dropping leaflets
telling South Korean civilians not to head south toward US defense
lines, and of shooting them if they did approach US lines despite
warning shots. This information was in a letter from ambassador John J.
Muccio to US Sec. of State Dean Rusk. The letter was declassified in
1982 .
(AP, 5/30/06)
1950 Jul 25, American soldiers
ordered villagers away from Im Ke Ri and sent them on the road to
Hwanggan.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A8)
1950 Jul 26-1950 Jul 29, US troops
killed up to 300 South Korean refugees trapped under a bridge at No Gun
Ri. The villagers had gathered there to avoid strafing from US planes
which killed some 100. US troops feared the refugees included
infiltrators from North Korea. The killings were not made public until
1999. On Jan 11, 2001 the US Army admitted that civilians were
massacred and Pres. Clinton offered his regrets. The US Army blamed the
"fog of war" in apology and acknowledgement. In 2007 the Army
acknowledged it had found, but did not divulge, that a high-level
document said the US military had a policy of shooting approaching
civilians in South Korea.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A1,16)(WSJ, 6/5/00, p.A32)(SSFC,
12/30/01, p.D2)(AP, 4/13/07)
1950 Jul 29, After 3 days of US
fire into underpasses, the 2nd Battalion pulled away. Koreans said 300
were left dead at the bridge at No Gun Ri.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A8)
1950 Jul, The US Army lost 2,834
soldiers with 2,486 wounded in July.
(WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A22)
1950 Jul, Some 1800 political
prisoners were executed over 3 days at Taejon (Daejeon). The executions
were ordered to prevent the release of the prisoners by advancing North
Korean military. Later evidence indicated that South Korean
executioners killed between 3,000 and 7,000 at Daejeon.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)(AP, 5/19/08)
1950 Aug 3, In South Korea Maj.
Gen'l. Hobart R. Gay ordered the demolition of the Waegwan Bridge over
the Naktong River to prevent enemy crossings. The bridge was filled
with refugees. 25 miles down river the 650-foot long Tuksong-dong
bridge was also destroyed as refugees crossed.
(SFC, 10/14/99, p.A6)
1950 Aug 10, Some 200-300
prisoners were killed by South Korean police near Dokchon.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)
1950 Aug 18-1950 Aug 25, The
Battles of the Bowling Alley took place during the Korean War in a
narrow valley north of Tabu-dong, Korea on the Taegu-Sangju road. There
the U.S. Army‘s 27th Infantry Division and the Republic of Korea‘s
(ROK) 1st Infantry Division faced off against a determined effort by
the North Korean People‘s Army‘s 1st and 13th Infantry Divisions to
break through that segment of the Pusan perimeter. It was part of the
overall effort of the ROK forces and the U.S. Eighth Army to stop the
North Korean advance.
(HNQ, 8/24/00)
1950 Aug 20, South Korean police
and soldiers killed 210 people on the southern island of Cheju.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)
1950 Aug 31, Three North Korean
divisions opened an assault on UN lines on the Naktong River in a push
to take Pusan.
(SSFC, 11/7/04, Par p.4)
1950 Sep 1, In South Korea the USS
DeHaven received an order from its Shore Fire Control Party to open
fire on a large group of refugee personnel located on Pohang beach.
Witnesses said 100 to 200 civilians were killed in the Navy shelling.
(AP, 4/13/07)
1950 Sep 1, US Company C, 1st
Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, was almost completely
annihilated as North Korean divisions opened an assault on UN lines on
the Naktong River. Only Company C and other elements of the 2nd
Infantry Division stood in the path.
(SSFC, 11/7/04, Par p.4)
1950 Sep 10, In South Korea 43
American war planes dropped 93 napalm canisters over Wolmi to clear out
its eastern slope for UN troops. Village residents later said dozens of
people were killed.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)
1950 Sep 15, During the Korean
conflict, United Nations forces landed at Inchon in the south and began
their drive toward Seoul. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in
history, it was the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur's career. The
newly organized X Corps under the command of General Douglas MacArthur
launched an amphibious invasion of Korea’s western coast at Inchon, the
port of the Korean capital, Seoul. After two days of naval bombardment,
U.S. Marines seized the offshore island of Wolmi-do and proceeded
inland against surprisingly light resistance. By September 26, American
forces had captured Seoul.
(AP, 9/15/97)(HN, 9/15/99)(HNPD, 9//99)
1950 Sep 15, US troop landed on
Wolmi-Do island off of Seoul.
(www.history.navy.mil)
1950 Sep 23, US Mustangs
accidentally bombed British troops on Hill 282 in Korea. 17 were killed.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1950 Sep 26, General Douglas
MacArthur's American X Corps, fresh from the Inchon landing, linked up
with the U.S. Eighth Army after its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter.
United Nations troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from
the North Koreans. [see Sep 27]
(AP, 9/26/97)(HN, 9/26/99)
1950 Sep 27, U.S. Army and Marine
troops liberated Seoul, South Korea.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1950 Sep 29, General Douglas
MacArthur officially returned Seoul, South Korea, to President Syngman
Rhee.
(HN, 9/29/98)
1950 Sep 30, U.N. forces crossed
the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursued the
retreating North Korean Army.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1950 Oct 2, Mao Tse Tung sent a
telegram to Stalin. China intervened in Korea.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1950 Oct 7, The United Nations
General Assembly passed a resolution to establish a unified and
democratic Korea.
(HN, 10/7/98)
1950 Oct 14, Chinese Communist
Forces began to infiltrate the North Korean Army.
(HN, 10/14/98)
1950 Oct 14, Rev. Sun Young Moon
was liberated from Hung Nam prison (Korea).
(MC, 10/14/01)
1950 Oct 15, President Harry
Truman met with General Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island to discuss
U.N. progress in the Korean War.
(HN, 10/15/98)
1950 cOct 18, US forces drove
north across the 38th parallel into the Peoples Republic of North Korea.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, zone 1 p.5)
1950 Oct 18, The First Turkish
Brigade arrived in Korea to assist the U.N. forces fighting there.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1950 Oct 19, United Nations forces
entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)
1950 Oct 21, North Korean Premier
Kim Il-sung established a new capital at Sinuiju on the Yalu River
opposite the Chinese City of Antung.
(HN, 10/21/98)
1950 Oct 25, Chinese Communist
Forces launched their first phase offensive across the Yalu River into
North Korea.
(HN, 10/25/98)
1950 Oct 26, A reconnaissance
platoon for a South Korean division reached the Yalu River. They were
the only elements of the U.N. force to reach the river before the
Chinese offensive pushed the whole army down into South Korea.
(HN, 10/26/98)
1950 Oct 30, The First Marine
Division was ordered to replace the entire South Korean I Corps at the
Chosin Reservoir area.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1950 Oct 30, Gen'l. Douglas
McArthur ordered a combined Marine and Army outfit to cross the 38th
parallel and "mop up" remaining North Korean soldiers. 12,000 Marines
found themselves surrounded by 8 Chinese divisions. The marines lost
4,000 men and the Chinese lost 37,500. Joseph Owen later authored
"Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at the Chosin Reservoir," a
first person account of the fighting. In 1999 Martin Russ published
"Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign." The novel "The Marines of
Autumn" by Michael Brady was based on this campaign.
(WSJ, 8/6/99, p.W7)(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W8)
1950 Nov 18, South Korea Pres.
Syngman Rhee was forced to end mass executions.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1950 Nov 20, U.S. troops pushed to
Yalu River within five miles of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1950 Nov 24, UN troops began an
assault with the intent to end the Korean War by Christmas.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1950 Nov 26, China entered the
Korean conflict, launching a counter-offensive across the Yalu River
against soldiers from the United Nations, the United States and South
Korea. North Korean and Chinese troops halted the UN offensive.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(MC,
11/26/01)
1950 Nov 27, East of the Chosin
River, Chinese forces annihilated an American task force. Col. Barber
(d.2002 at 82) and 220 soldiers in Fox Company withstood a 5-day
assault to protect an escape pass.
(HN, 11/27/98)(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A18)
1950 Nov 28, In Korea, 200,000
Communist troops launched attack on UN forces.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1950 Nov 30, President Truman
declared that the U.S. would use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1950 Nov, Inexperienced but well
trained and eager to show their mettle, the first Turkish troops
arrived in Korea just in time to face the Chinese onslaught.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1950 Dec 5, Pyongyang in Korea
fell to the invading Chinese army.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1950 Dec 16, President Truman
proclaimed a state of National Emergency (as Chinese communists invaded
deeper into South Korea) in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
(AP, 12/16/97)(HN, 12/16/98)
1950 Dec 28, Chinese troops
crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1950 The US put forward its
“uniting for peace” resolution to the UN to overcome the Soviet veto on
military intervention in Korea.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.40)
1950-1951 In late 1950 and early 1951, in Namyangju,
16 miles northeast of Seoul, South Korea, the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission estimated in 2008 that police and a local militia
slaughtered more than 460 people, including at least 23 children under
the age of 10.
(AP, 12/7/08)
1950-1953 The Korean War started on Jun 25, 1950.
2.5 million people were killed with over 2 million of them civilians.
No peace treaty was ever signed. About 1.7 million Americans were
involved and there was an estimated 3 mil casualties including 150,000
(54,246) Americans and over 1 mil Chinese. In 1999 W.D. Ehrhart and
Philip K. Jason edited "Retrieving Bones: Stories and Poems of the
Korean War."
(NG, Aug., 1974, H. E. Kim, p.255)(SFC, 4/8/96,
p.A-9)(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. A15) (SFEM, 11/10/96, p.12)(SFC, 2/17/96,
p.A26)(SFEC, 8/29/99, BR p.3)(WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A22)
1950-1953 The United Nations employed 39,000 ground
forces that joined with the United States in the Korean War. Michael
Haas, a commando of the Korean War, later authored "In the double
Shadow." James Brady later authored his memoir "The Coldest War" and
novel "The Marines of Autumn."
(HNQ, 4/14/00)(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W8)
1951 Jan 4, During the Korean
conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city
of Seoul. UN forces abandoned Seoul, Korea to the Communists.
(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 1/4/99)
1951 Jan 5, Inchon, South Korea,
the sight of General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious flanking maneuver,
was abandoned by United Nations force to the advancing Chinese Army.
(HN, 1/5/01)
1951 Jan 14, The US Army’s X Corps
under Major Gen. Edward Almond ordered the methodical destruction of
dwellings and other buildings forward of front lines in South Korea and
recommended the use of air power.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)
1951 Jan 15, American bombing and
strafing killed Korean refugees at Yong-in.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A13)
1951 Jan 17, China refused a
cease-fire in Korea.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1951 Jan 19, In South Korea
American pilots summarized their air strikes at Sansong as “excellent
results.” An investigative commission later found that the attack,
which killed at least 51 villagers and no enemy troops, was
indiscriminate and unjustified.
(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)(AP, 8/3/08)
1951 Jan 20, American bombing and
strafing killed about 300 Korean refugees at Youngchoon. Korean
witnesses later said 300 people were trapped and suffocated in
Gokgyegul. On May 20, 2008, a South Korean Truth and Reconciliation
Commission identified 3 US attacks of indiscriminant use of napalm that
killed at least 228 civilians. The 1st at Wolmi on Sep 10, 1950, a 2nd
at Sansong on Jan 19, 1951 and a 3rd at Tanyang on Jan 20, 1951, where
at least 167 villagers were killed.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A13)(SFC, 1/13/01,
p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/5crkh9)(SSFC, 8/3/08, p.A16)
1951 Jan 21, Communist troops
forced the UN army out of Inchon, Korea after a 12-hour attack.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1951 Jan 25, The U.S. Eighth Army
in Korea launched Operation Thunderbolt, a counter attack to push the
Chinese Army north of the Han River.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1951 Feb 1, The UN condemned the
People's Republic of China as aggressor in Korea.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1951 Feb 13, At the Battle of
Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contained the Chinese forces'
offensive in a two-day battle.
(HN, 2/13/99)
1951 Feb 21, The U. S. Eighth Army
launched Operation Killer, a counterattack to push Chinese forces north
of the Han River in Korea.
(HN, 2/21/99)
1951 Mar 7, U.N. forces in Korea
under General Matthew Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper, an offensive
to straighten out the U.N. front lines against the Chinese.
(HN, 3/7/99)
1951 Mar 12, Communist troops were
driven out of Seoul.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1951 Apr 22-25, The Battle of
Imjin River in the Korean War. The 1st Battalion of the "Glorious"
Gloucestershire Regiment made a remarkable last ditch stand to allow
the British 29th Brigade to withdraw in the face of the oncoming
Chinese army.
(http://britishhistory.about.com)
1951 Apr 25, After a three day
fight against Chinese Communist Forces, the Gloucestershire Regiment
was annihilated on "Gloucester Hill," in Korea.
(HN, 4/25/99)
1951 May 16, Chinese Communist
Forces launched a second step, fifth-phase offensive [in Korea] and
gained up to 20 miles of territory.
(HN, 5/16/99)
1951 May 18, US General Collins
predicted the use of atom bomb in Korea.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1951 May 19, UN began a counter
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1951 May 21, The U.S. Eighth Army
counterattacked to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of
South Korea.
(HN, 5/21/99)
1951 Sep 13, In Korea, U.S. Army
troops began their assault in Heartbreak Ridge. The month-long struggle
would cost 3,700 casualties.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1951 Sep 13, Lt. Daniel J. Marini
led 40 marines to capture Hill 712 in Korea near Imjin River. He
received a Silver Star in 1997.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.A18)
1951 Sep 13, American Lt. Alvin
Earl Crane was shot down while on a reconnaissance flight over North
Korea. His remains were returned by North Korea in 1990, but positive
identification by DNA only took place in 2005.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.B6)
1951 Sep, Some 90 US Marines were
killed taking a North Korea ridge called Hill 749. [see Sep 13]
(SSFC, 5/25/03, Par p.5)
1951 Nov 12, The U.S. Eighth Army
in Korea was ordered to cease offensive operations and begin an active
defense.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1951 Nov 25, A truce line between
U.N. troops and North Korea was mapped out at the peace talks in
Panmunjom, Korea.
(HN, 11/25/00)
1951 Nov 27, Cease-fire and
demarcation zone accord was signed in Panmunjom, Korea.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1951-1952 Francis Gabreski (d.2002 at 83), US fighter
pilot, shot down 6½ MiGs during the Korean War. During WW II he
was credited with 37½ kills. He later authored the
autobiography: "Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life."
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A18)
1952 Mar 18, There was a Communist
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1952 Mar 27, Elements of the U.S.
Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing
line between the two Koreas.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1952 Apr 28, War with Japan
officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the United States
and 47 other countries took effect. Japan regained independence. The
government immediately revoked Japanese nationality from ethnic
Koreans, called zainichi. Those loyal to north Korea were called Soren
and those loyal to South Korea were called Mindan.
(AP, 4/28/00)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(Econ, 6/3/06,
p.40)
1952 Jun 23, The US Air Force
bombed power plants on Yalu River, Korea.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1952 Oct 8, The Chinese began an
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1952 Dec 14, Eighty-four Korean
Communist prisoners interned on Pongam Island were killed during a riot
after attempting to escape.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1953 Feb 17, Baseball star and
pilot Ted Williams was uninjured as his plane was shot down in Korea.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1953 Mar 10, North Korean gunners
at Wonsan fired on the USS Missouri, the ship responds by firing 998
rounds at the enemy position.
(HN, 3/10/99)
1953 Apr 20, Operation Little
Switch began in Korea, the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of
war.
(HN, 4/20/99)
1953 Jun 7, Pres. Eisenhower
announced that proposals for a Korean truce are acceptable to the US
and appealed to South Korea to accept terms to stop the war.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.E2)
1953 Jul 14, There was a Communist
offensive in Korea.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1953 Jul 25, A truce ended the
Korean War. S.L.A. Marshall later authored "The River and the
Gauntlet," a description of the slaughter the war brought to both
sides. Clay Blair later authored "Forgotten War," and Roy Appelman
wrote "East of Chosin" and "Disaster in Korea."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)(WSJ, 8/6/99, p.W7)
1953 Jul 27, An
armistice ending fighting in the three-year Korean War was signed by
representatives of the United Nations, Korea and China in Panmunjom.
Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison represented the UN and Gen. Nam Il
represented North Korea. General Mark Clark, commander of the UN
forces, added his signature to the armistice agreement. Armistice
negotiations had begun in July 1951, when the outlook for reunifying
North and South Korea became bleak, and fighting continued. The
cease-fire provided for an exchange of prisoners of war and established
a 2 ½ mile wide demilitarized zone and a demarcation line at the
38th parallel. Not all aspects of the agreement, however, were
finalized—the UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of
Korea was not suspended until 1977. N. Korea measures 46,540 sq. miles,
its population in 1974 was ~15 million people. 33,651 Americans had
died and 8,000 were still missing in 2000.
(NG, 8/74, p.255)(TMC, 1994, p.1953)(WSJ, 6/24/96,
C1)(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(HNPD, 7/27/98)(HN, 7/27/98)(SFEC, 5/9/99,
p.T10)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.5)(SFC, 7/25/03, p.E6)
1953 Aug 5, Operation "Big Switch"
was under way as prisoners taken during the Korean conflict were
exchanged at Panmunjom.
(AP, 8/5/03)
1953 Aug 8, the United States and
South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.
(AP, 8/8/99)
1953 Sep 21, North Korean pilot
Lieutenant Ro Kim Suk landed his aircraft at Kimpo airfield outside
Seoul. The Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, powered by a jet engine
superior to those then used in American fighter planes, first saw
combat in Korea during November 1950, where its performance shifted the
balance of air power to Russian-backed North Korea. On April 26, 1953,
two U.S. Air Force B-29s dropped leaflets behind enemy lines, offering
a $50,000 reward and political asylum to any pilot delivering an intact
MiG-15 to American forces for study. Although Ro denied any knowledge
of the bounty, he collected the reward, and American scientists were
able to examine the MiG-15.
(HNPD, 8/28/00)
1954 Jan 20, Over 22,000
anti-Communist prisoners were turned over to the UN forces in Korea.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), was created by the Southeast Asia Collective
Defense Treaty, in response to events in Korea and Indochina (Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos). SEATO formed to stop communist spread in Southeast
Asia. [see Sep 18]
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(MC, 9/8/01)
1958 May 15, In South Korea the
Yoido Full Gospel Church was founded by David Yonggi Cho and his
mother-in-law, Choi Ja-shil, both Assemblies of God pastors. Their
first worship service was held in the home of Choi Ja-shil. Apart from
the two pastors, only Choi Ja-shil's three daughters and one elderly
woman, who had come in to escape from the rain, attended the first
service. By 2007 Yoido counted some 830,000 members and its church in
Seoul was the largest in the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Yonggi_Cho)
1958 The Goldstar electronics firm
was founded in South Korea. It later became known as LG Electronics.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.70)
1959 Sep 17, Typhoon Sara killed
2,000 in Japan & Korea. 840 people were left dead or missing in
South Korea. [see Japan Sep 27]
(MC, 9/17/01)(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A3)
1960 Apr 27, South Korean pres
Syngman Rhee resigned. The government of Syngman Rhee was toppled.
Parliament began investigations of alleged summary executions during
the 1950-1953 war.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)(MC, 4/27/02)
1961 May 15, 36 Unification church
couples were wed in Korea.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1961 In South Korea Pres. Park
Chung Hee (1917-1979) led a military coup that overthrew Premier John
M. Chang. The military seized power and investigations into wartime
summary executions ceased. This began a 26-year dictatorship. The junta
marched many racketeers through Seoul wearing dunce caps with slogans
such as “I am a corrupt swine.”
(SFC,12/15/97, p.B2)(SFC, 4/21/00,
p.A19)(www.encarta.msn.com)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.13)
1965 Jul 19, Syngman Rhee (90),
president of South-Korea (1948-60), died.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1965 Charles Robert Jenkins
deserted his US Army post at the Korean DMZ and took up residence in
North Korea where he married Hitomi Soga, a Japanese woman kidnapped by
North Korea in the 1970s. In 2004 Jenkins reunited with his wife in
Indonesia and in September turned himself in to US military authorities
in Japan. [see Sep 1, 1965]
(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A5)(SSFC, 5/23/04, p.A18)(WSJ,
7/12/04, p.A1)(AP, 9/1/04)
1965-1973 Some 300,000 South Korean troops fought
alongside US forces in Vietnam. In 1998 South Vietnam expressed to
Hanoi its regret for its participation in the war.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1966 South Korean Gen. Choi Hong
Hi (1918-2002) founded the Int’l. Taekwon-do Federation. Tae kwan do, a
form of self defense that engages the mind and body, combined a Korean
martial art, taek kyon, with the Japanese discipline of karate.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1966 In South Korea the Korean
Productivity Center purchased the country’s first computer.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.17)
1968 Jan 21, A group of 31 North
Korean commandos trudged undetected for about 40 miles from the border
to the presidential Blue House of South Korean President Park Chung-hee
in downtown Seoul. South Korean security forces repelled the assault.
28 North Koreans and 34 South Koreans were killed.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A8)(AP, 12/25/03)
1968 Apr, The South Korean Silmido
Unit was forged of misfits to "blast Kim Il Sung's palace in Pyongyang
and cut his throat."
(AP, 12/25/03)
1968 Richard Hooker authored his
Korean War novel "M*A*S*H*."
(SFEC, 8/29/99, BR p.3)
1968 In South Korea POSCO was
founded to manufacture steel. By 2008 it was the world’s 4th largest
steelmaker. It was started by the state using $120 million in war
reparations from Japan. It was privatized after South Korea’s 1997
financial crises.
(Econ, 8/30/08, p.62)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.9)
1968-1969 The US Pentagon admitted in 1999 that it
had helped South Korea obtain Agent Orange to defoliate areas along the
demilitarized zone. Soldiers applied it by hand. In 2000 1,890 South
Korean soldiers and farmers had registered as victims. They sought $4.3
billion from Dow Chemical and Monsanto and $1 billion for the US
government.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A18)
1970 Oct 21, In South Korea 777
Unification church couples were wed.
(www.ultralingua.com/eureka/index.php/Category:Unification_Church)
1971 Apr 27, In South Korea Kim
Dae-jung, a serious challenger to Park's dictatorship, nearly defeated
Park in the presidential election. After the stunning election outcome,
Park revised the constitution to guarantee himself victory in future
elections.
(AP, 10/24/07)(http://tinyurl.com/569aqp)
1971 Aug 23, South Korea's
Silmido Unit, organized in 1968 to kill North Korea's Kim Il Sung,
rebelled and murdered 18 of its 24 trainers. A film titled "Silmido"
was released Dec 24, 2003.
(AP, 12/25/03)
1971 The Korea Advanced Institute
for Science and Technology was founded in Daejeon, South Korea.
(WSJ, 5/1/07, p.A1)
1971 The Unification Church of
Rev. Sun Myung Moon (51) of South Korea counted some 500 members in the
US. Missionaries from South Korea and Japan had begun arriving in the
late 1950s and early 1960s.
(SFEC,11/30/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church_of_the_United_States)
1973 Aug 8, Secret agents of the
Korean Central Intelligence Agency kidnapped Kim Dae-jung from a Tokyo
hotel, just days before he was to launch a coalition of Japan-based
South Korean organizations to work for their country's democratization.
Conservative politician Kim Jong Pil (b.1926), the father of the secret
police agency, led the kidnapping and near assassination of politician
Kim Dae Jung (b.1925). In 2007 a fact-finding panel of the National
Intelligence Service said it cannot rule out the possibility that
former President Park Chung-hee may have directly ordered the
kidnapping of Kim, then his main political rival.
(AP, 10/24/07)(SFC,12/15/97,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-pil)
1973 In South Korea the government
imported live bullfrogs as a meat supplement. The frogs thrived but did
not catch on with diners. In 1997 a bullfrog eradication program was
established.
(WSJ, 9/10/97, p.A14)
1973 Chung Ju-yung (1915-2001),
North Korea-born founder of Hyundai (1947), founded Hyundai Heavy
Industries, a South Korean ship builder. It grew to become the world’s
largest ship builder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ju-yung)
1974 Aug 15, South Korean
President Park Chung-hee escaped an assassination attempt in which his
wife was killed. Park’s daughter took over as 1st lady.
(AP, 8/15/97)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.44)
1975 Feb 8, 1800 Unification
church couples were wed in Korea.
(www.signaturebooks.com/excerpts/unification.htm)
1975 Aug, North Korea seized 33
South Korean fisherman near their maritime border. In 2006 Choi Uk-il,
one of the 33, escaped to China and returned home to South Korea.
(Econ, 1/13/07,
p.38)(www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=102448)
1976 Aug 18, Two U.S. Army
officers were killed in Korea's demilitarized zone as a group of North
Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South
Korean soldiers. Major Arthur G. Bonifas was attacked and beaten to
death by North Korean soldiers as he attempted to cut down a poplar
tree in the DMZ.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T8)(AP, 8/18/02)
1978 Jan, South Korean actress
Choi Eun Hee (b.1928), while visiting Hong Kong, was kidnapped to North
Korea. Two weeks later her husband, Shin Sang Ok, prominent South
Korean producer and director, was searching for her in Hong Kong when
he was knocked out with chloroform and shipped to North Korea. In 1986
Sang-Ok (d.2006) and his wife, while on a promotional trip, fled to a
US embassy in Vienna.
(http://tinyurl.com/bnoq)(Econ, 4/29/06, p.90)
1978 Apr 20, A South Korean Air
Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia. Flight 902 was
fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. 107
passengers and crew survived after the plane made an emergency landing
on a frozen lake and 2 passengers were killed.
(AP,
4/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_902)
1978 Dec 31, John McFall
(1918-2006), an 11-term California Democrat, resigned from the US House
of Representatives. In October the House had reprimanded him and 2
other California Democratic colleagues, Edward Roybal and Charles
Wilson, for the questionable handling of money donated by South Korean
businessman Tongsun Park.
(SFC, 3/15/06, p.B7)
1978 Seoul's Cheonggye River
disappeared beneath a new 4-lane elevated Highway. In 2004 Mayor Lee
Myung Bak, former head of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, began a
drive to tear down the highway and uncover the stream.
(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A11)
1979 Oct 26, South Korean
President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by the head of the Korean
Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-hah (1918-2006)
became acting president after the assassination of President Park
Chung-hee. The void created by Park's death was filled by Maj. Gen.
Chun Doo-hwan, a Park protege and commander of the powerful Defense
Security Command. Chun staged an internal coup to take control of the
military, then persuaded the new president, Choi Kyuh-hah, to impose
martial law and name Chun chief of the KCIA. Choi was forced to resign
8 months later following a military coup.
(AP, 10/26/97)(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.B1)(AP, 10/22/06)
1979 Dec 25, In Tong-du-cheon,
Korea, two US soldiers, David Medina and Reinaldo Roa, approached an MP
station under cover of darkness. Medina and Roa had earlier been
arrested for beating up an elderly Korean store owner. They tossed a
hand-grenade through the front door and several MPs were injured by
shrapnel and other debris. In the ensuing confusion, the suspects
escaped. Roa and Medina were later caught after they bragged about
their feat.
(PSS, 12/30/79)
1980 May 18, In the South Korean
city of Kwangju (Gwangju), townspeople and students began a nine-day
uprising that was finally put down by troops. The region was the home
of opposition leader Kim Dae-jung.
(AP, 5/18/00)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.C10)
1980 May 27, South Korean police
ended a people's uprising in Gwangju in which some 2,000 people were
killed. South Koreans simply called it 5.18, by the starting date.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Massacre)
1980 Aug 27, In South Korea Chun
Doo-hwan (b.1931) had the military junta name him president, replacing
Choi.
(AP, 10/24/07)(www.dpg.devry.edu/~akim/sck/kp2.html)
1980 Sep 17, South Korea
opposition leader Kim Dae-jung was sentenced to death. In 1981 the
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Seoul.
(http://tinyurl.com/3a4q4z)
1981 Jan 23, Under international
pressure, opposition leader Kim Dae-jung’s death sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment in Seoul.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1982 Oct 14, Some 6,000
Unification church couples were wed in Korea.
(www.tparents.org/library/unification/topics/traditn/history-bless.htm)
1982 Choi Jung-hwa, a South Korean
taekwondo master, hired two agents to shoot South Korean President Chun
Doo-hwan during a visit to Canada. The plot, however, was detected and
Choi went into hiding in Eastern Europe and North Korea. In 1991, he
surrendered to Canadian authorities and was sentenced to six years in
prison, but was released after one year for good behavior. In 2008 he
returned to South Korea.
(AP, 9/9/08)
1983 Sep 1, The KAL flight 007 was
downed by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet
airspace. 269 people were killed aboard the Korean Air Lines Boeing 747
including sixty-one Americans, among them Georgia Representative Larry
McDonald. The order was given by Soviet Gen’l. Anatoly Kornukov who
held that the plane was part of a hostile US operation. In 2005 the
History Channel featured a TV documentary on the tragedy.
(SFC, 5/29/96, A3)(AP, 9/1/97)(WSJ, 1/23/98,
p.A1)(TV, 12/22/05)
1983 Sep 6, The USSR admitted to
shooting down KAL 007 on Sep 1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_007)
1983 Sep 12, The USSR vetoed a UN
resolution deploring its shooting down of South Korea’s KAL flight 007
plane.
(www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/veto/vetosubj.htm)
1986 Hyundai, a South Korean auto
maker, entered the US market with low cost cars.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.72)
1987 Nov 21, In South Korea riot
police stood guard to prevent violence by rival supporters as
presidential candidates traded charges of corruption and cruelty.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1987 Lim Kook-Jae (33), a South
Korean fisherman, was abducted in the Yellow Sea. In 2008 he died at
one of the North's political camps in the northeastern port of Chongjin
after failed attempts to escape.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
1988 Sep 17, South Korea opened
the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul. Closing ceremonies for the summer Olympics
were held on October 2. North Korea refused to participate. Cuba and
Nicaragua stayed away in solidarity.
(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.R2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Summer_Olympics)
1988 Sep 18, The Soviet Union won
the first gold medal of the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, in
the women's air rifle event, while U.S. divers picked up silver and
bronze medals in women's platform.
(AP, 9/18/98)
1988 Sep 19, Swimmer Janet Evans
gave the United States its first gold medal of the Summer Olympics in
Seoul, South Korea, by winning the 400-meter individual medley.
(AP, 9/19/98)
1988 Sep 20, Greg Louganis of the
United States won the gold medal in springboard diving at the Summer
Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, a day after he injured his head on the
board in the preliminary round.
(AP, 9/20/98)
1988 Sep 24, Canadian sprinter Ben
Johnson won the men's 100-meter dash in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul
Summer Olympics. He was disqualified three days later for using
anabolic steroids.
(AP, 9/24/98)(Econ, 8/2/08, SR p.15)
1988 Sep 29, Florence Griffith
Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the U.S. won their second gold
medals of the Seoul Olympics, in the 200-meter and the long jump,
respectively.
(AP, 9/29/98)
1988 Oct 2, The Summer Olympic
Games concluded in Seoul, South Korea. The USSR won 55 gold medals, E.
Germany won 37, and the US won 36.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.4)(HN, 10/2/98)
1988 South Korea saw the formation
of a National Headquarters for Labor Law Reform.
(www.socialistworld.net/publications/southkorea/sk13.html)
1989 Feb 27, President Bush warned
of what he called the "fool's gold" of trade protectionism as he
addressed South Korea's National Assembly before returning home.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1989 Jul 27, Eighty people were
killed when a Korean Air DC-10 crashed in Libya.
(AP, 7/27/99)
1989 In South Korea the National
Council of Regional and Industrial Trade Unions formed. The nationwide
May Day rally was the first one since 1945.
(www.socialistworld.net/publications/southkorea/sk13.html)
1989 In South Korea some 400,000
workers downed their tools in strikes that lasted months.
(SFC, 1/10/97,
p.A14)(www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12349.html)
1991 Apr 19, Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in South Korea for talks with President
Roh Tae-woo.
(AP, 4/19/01)
1991 Sep 17, The U.N. General
Assembly opened its 46th session, welcoming new members Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and
Micronesia.
(AP, 9/17/01)
1991 Dec 13, North Korea and South
Korea signed a non-aggression agreement aimed at eventual
reconciliation.
(AP, 12/13/01)
1991 Kim Hak Soon became the 1st
Korean to publicly acknowledge her WW II past as a sexual slave,
"comfort woman."
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D7)
1992 Jan 5, President Bush arrived
in Seoul, South Korea, on the third stop of a 12-day tour focusing on
international trade issues.
(AP, 1/5/02)
1992 In South Korea Chung Ju Yung,
founder of Hyundai Group, formed his own political party and ran
against Kim Young Sam.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A11)
1992 In South Korea Kim Young Sam
won the presidency, the first democratically elected civilian in 32
years.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A1)
1992 The two Koreas agreed in a
pact to continue talks to demarcate the sea border while respecting the
Northern Limit Line (NLL) until a new border is set.
(AP, 8/29/07)
1993 Jul 26, A Boeing 737-500
crashed in South Korea and 68 people were killed.
(http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19930726-1)
1994 Mar 19, Talks between North
Korea and South Korea collapsed, imperiling a U.S.-brokered deal to
resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute.
(AP, 3/19/99)
1994 Jun 11, The United States,
South Korea and Japan agreed to seek punitive steps against North Korea
over its nuclear program.
(AP, 6/11/99)
1994 Jun 18, The presidents of
North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold a historic summit. Plans
were disrupted by the death of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung on July
8.
(AP, 6/18/99)
1994 Jun 28, North and South Korea
set July 25-27 as the dates for a historic summit. The summit was
derailed by the death of North Korean President Kim Il Sung on Jul 8.
(AP, 6/28/99)
1994 Oct 21, Thirty-two people
were killed when a section of bridge collapsed in Seoul, South Korea.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1994 Nov 29, Seoul, Korea,
celebrated the 600th anniversary of its founding.
(http://english.seoul.go.kr/today/about/about_02top_0703.htm)
1994 A Korean Airbus crashed but
no one was killed.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A10)
1995 Apr 28, In Taegu, South
Korea, a gas line exploded in the middle of an intersection crowded
with morning traffic, killing 101 people.
(AP, 4/28/00)
1995 Jun 29, A department store in
Seoul, South Korea, collapsed, killing 501 people and injuring more
than 900.
(AP, 6/29/97)
1995 Jul 15, A 19-year-old sales
clerk was rescued after being buried in the rubble of a collapsed
shopping mall in Seoul, South Korea, for 16 days.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1995 Dec 3, Former South Korean
president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup that
was followed by the most violent crackdown in the nation's history.
(AP, 12/03/05)
1995 By this year Christianity
surpassed Buddhism as South Korea’s most popular religion.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.37)
1996 Aug 26, In Seoul, South
Korea, former Pres. Chun Doo Hwan was sentenced to death for mutiny,
treason and corruption. His successor, Roh Tae Woo, was sentenced to 22
1/2 years in prison. Nine leading businessman were also convicted. They
included Lee Kin Hee, chairman of Samsung Group, and Kim Woo Choong,
chairman of Daewoo Group. The death sentence was later commuted, and
Chun was freed as part of an amnesty in 1997.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A1)(AP, 8/26/06)
1996 Aug 27, South Korea was
reported to be the world’s 11th largest economy and America’s 5th
largest trading partner.
(WSJ, 8/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Mayor Sim Jae Duck of Suwon
began a program to establish the city's restrooms as the best in the
world.
(WSJ, 11/26/99, p.A1)
1997 Jun 30, North Korea agreed to
hold talks with South Korea in NYC beginning Aug 5.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 6, Korean Air Flight 801
from Seoul, a Boeing 747-300 jumbo jet, crashed into a hillside a short
distance from Guam’s Agana International Airport killing 228 with 26
survivors. A programming glitch in the ground radar system was later
identified as a contributing factor but not the cause.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_801)(WSJ, 4/8/99,
p.A1)(AP, 8/6/98)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1997 Dec 1, South Korea reached a
preliminary agreement with the IMF for a $55-60 billion bailout.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A7)
1997 Dec 3, South Korea struck a
deal with the International Monetary Fund for a record $55 billion
bailout of its foundering economy.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1997 Dec 18, South Korea held
presidential elections. One time dissident Kim Dae Yung (Kim
Dae-jung) won the elections with 40.3% of the vote.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.C2)(WSJ, 12/19/97, p.A1)(AP,
12/18/98)
1997 A law that allowed only one
umbrella labor group was abolished. Until this time only the Korea
Federation of Trade Unions, with 1.5 million members in banks and light
industry, was recognized.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C5)
1997-1998 Korea’s conglomerates were battered by a
currency crises.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A6)
1998 Jan 17, In South Korea some
2,500 workers marched in Seoul to protest the government’s labor reform
plan. Kim Dae-jung called for a smaller labor force to attract more
funds from the IMF and foreign investors.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 1, In South Korea Pres.
Kim Dae Jung ordered the release of political prisoners. Some 500
prisoners were expected to be released by Aug 15, the 50th anniversary
of the end of Japanese occupation.
(SFC, 7/2/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 1, In South Korea
flooding killed at least 20 sleeping campers and left 70 others missing.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, p.A24)
1998 Oct 8, In Japan Prime
Minister Obuchi issued an apology to the people of South Korea for 35
years of brutal colonial rule. Pres. Kim Dae-jung of South Korea
accepted the written apology, the first ever issued by Japan to an
individual country for its actions during WW II.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 24, Officials from the
US, China and North and South Korea seeking a permanent peace for the
divided Korean peninsula announced in Geneva they had removed the last
obstacles to full-blown talks.
(AP, 10/24/03)
1998 Oct, South Korea lifted its
ban on importing Japanese comic books, magazines, and movies. It was
the first phase of a gradual opening to Japanese pop culture.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 30, In Seoul Buddhist
monks clashed for a 3rd time with rival factions in a dispute over
leadership. Some 40 people were injured. The trouble began when Song
Wol Ju, head of the Chogye Buddhist order, sought a 3rd four-year term.
He later offered to resign but his followers refused to give ground.
The order controls an annual budget of some $9.2 million plus property
valued in the millions.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 5, In South Korea the
first Japanese film since 1945 was screened. "Hana Bi" (Fireworks) was
the first film shown since a ban on Japanese work was lifted in Oct.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 11, The Seoul District
Court issued a provisional ruling ordering dissident monks to leave the
grounds of the Chogye Temple.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 16, Researchers in South
Korea claimed to have cloned a human embryo, but destroyed it early in
its development.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 18, South Korea sank a
half-submarine belonging to North Korea and recovered the body of a
crewman in a wet suit carrying a grenade.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D9)
1998 Nov 21, President Clinton,
visiting South Korea, warned North Korea to forsake nuclear weapons and
urged the North to seize a "historic opportunity" for peace with the
South.
(AP, 11/21/99)
1998 South Korea began running a
tourist resort at Mount Kumgang, just on the northern side of the
divided Korean peninsula. Hyundai Asan began operating the 4,900-acre
compound.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W7)
1998 In South Korea Chung
Mong-koo, eldest son of founder Chung Ju-yung, took over as head of
Hyundai Motor Co.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.68)
1998 Hong Kong suffered a slump in
GDP of over 6% as did Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.51)
1999 Feb 25, South Korea granted
amnesty to 1,508 people including a convicted North Korean spy jailed
for 41 years. Civil rights were also to be restored to 7,304 people out
on parole.
(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 15, A South Korean Air
cargo MD-11 crashed after takeoff from Shanghai and at least 5 people
were killed. Explosives were suspect in the crash.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.A1)
1999 May 12, In South Korea
thousands of metal and hospital workers went on strike to protest
planned layoffs and wage cuts.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A19)
1999 Jun 11, South Korean ships
rammed and briefly repelled 4 North Korean patrol boats. North Korea
warned South Korea to withdraw warships from disputed waters in the
Yellow Sea on the 5th day of a standoff.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A13)(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 13, North Korea agreed to
talk to UN military officers in an attempt to resolve the naval
confrontations with South Korea.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 14, South Korean warships
sank a North Korean torpedo boat and damaged another in the Yellow Sea.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 22, Talks between North
and South Korea broke down after 90 minutes as North Korea demanded and
apology from South Korea for the naval clash in the Yellow Sea where
some 30 North Korean sailors were believed to have died in a June 15
shootout.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A14)
1999 Jun 30, In South Korea a fire
swept through the summer camp dormitory of the Sealand Youth Training
Center in Hwasung and 23 young children were killed. It was later
revealed that the owner of the facility had bribed local officials for
licenses despite gross violations of fire and safety rules.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A9)(SFC, 7/7/99, p.C12)
1999 Jun, In South Korea NHN Corp.
launched Naver, the first portal in South Korea that used its own
proprietary search engine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naver)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.71)
1999 Jul 3, In Beijing talks
between the North and South Korea collapsed.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A22)
1999 Jul 15, Lim Chang Yuel (53),
governor of Kyonggi Province, was accused of bribery along with his
wife, Chu Hae Ran.
(SFC, 7/16/99, p.D3)
1999 Aug 1, In South Korea
torrential rains over the weekend killed at least 12 people and forced
some 15,000 from their homes.
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 3, In South Korea 35
people died from Monsoon rains and another 22 were missing and presumed
dead.
(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 20, It was reported that
government controlled banks forced Daewoo Group, South Korea’s 2nd
largest conglomerate (chaebol), to sell all but 6 auto-related units
among its 25 affiliates. Kim Woo Choong, the man who built the group
into a global powerhouse, fled South Korea as the conglomerate
collapsed. He returned in 2005 and was arrested. In May 2006 he was
sentenced to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of charges
including embezzlement and accounting fraud. 21 trillion won ($22bn) of
his fortune was seized and he was fined an additional 10m won. On
December 30, 2007, he was granted amnesty by Pres. Roh Moo-hyun.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D4)(WSJ, 6/14/05,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Woo-jung)
1999 Sep 2, North Korea declared a
new demilitarized zone with South Korea that placed 5 islands
controlled by South Korea with North Korean territory.
(SFC, 9/3/99, p.A9)
1999 Oct 1, South Korean activists
thanked the US government for promising to investigate an Associated
Press report that US forces allegedly killed several hundred refugees
at the start of the Korean War. But the protesters also demanded the US
punish some of the veterans involved and compensate the victims’
relatives.
(AP, 10/1/00)
1999 Oct 4, In South Korea
radioactive water leaked inside a nuclear power plant in Wolsung and
exposed 22 workers to small amounts of radiation.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 30, In Inchon, South
Korea, a fire killed 54 young people, mostly teenagers, at a karaoke
bar. Another 75 were injured.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, p.A2)
1999 Nov 21, In South Korea
thousands of workers gathered in Seoul and demanded a reduction of the
workweek from 44 to 40 hours. They also protested government plans to
privatize state-run power, gas and financial firms.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 23, South Korea
officially recognized a 2nd labor umbrella group, the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions.
1999 Nov, The US military
distributed 14,000 gas masks to dependents of American soldiers and
embassy staff members.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.A23)
1999 Dec 10, In South Korea nearly
20,000 people gathered for a labor rally in Seoul that turned violent
and left 160 people injured.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.C2)
1999 South Korea signed an
extradition treaty with the US.
(AP, 3/19/08)
1999 South Korea received a record
$15.5 billion in foreign investment.
(WSJ, 7/24/00, p.A1)
1999 South Korea initiated OPEN
(Online Procedures Enhancement for Civil Applications), an
Internet-based anti-graft program.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.D6)
1999-2003 South Korea ran up a collective credit-card
balance of $57.47 billion. This more than a 5-fold increase from 10.95
billion at the end of 1999. The delinquency rate in 2003 jumped to
13.5% vs. 2.6% in 1999.
(WSJ, 1/20/04, p.A1)
2000 Jan 9, Prime Minister Kim
Jong Pil appointed Park Tae Joon (73), president of the United Liberal
Democrats, as his successor.
(SFC, 1/10/00, p.A11)
2000 Feb, The US military released
20 gallons of formaldehyde into a drainage ditch that led Han River,
the main source for Seoul’s drinking water.
(SFC, 7/24/00, p.A16)
2000 cApr 2, South Korea said it
would slaughter 350,000 hoofed livestock to stem public concerns over
an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
(WSJ, 4/3/00, p.A21)
2000 Apr 9, North and South Korea
agreed to a summit meeting in June.
(SFC, 4/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 13, In South Korea
election results gave 115 seats to the ruling Millennium Democratic
Party of Pres. Kin Dae-jung. The opposition Grand National Party won
133 seats.
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.A21)
2000 May 19, Prime Minister Park
Tae Joon resigned after a court ruled that he had concealed ownership
of properties to avoid large tax payments.
(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D4)
2000 May 18, North and South Korea
agreed to an agenda for their 1st summit meeting. In 2003 it was
reported that South Korea's Hyundai business group drew $186 million
from a government-owned bank shortly before the summit and allegedly
spent the money on unspecified projects in the North. In 2006 it was
reported that Hyundai sent some $500 million to Kim Jong Il to secure
the summit.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/1/03)(Econ, 10/28/06,
p.49)
2000 Jun 13, Pres. Kim Jong Il of
North Korea met with Pres. Kim Dae-jung of South Korea in the 1st
meeting ever between leaders of the 2 countries. They agreed to try to
satisfy their people’s desire for reconciliation. Border loudspeakers
that blasted insults at South Korea were shut off.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A10)(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A1)(SFC,
6/17/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 14, Pres. Kim Jong Il of
North Korea and Pres. Kim Dae-jung of South Korea pledged concrete
steps toward unifying their divided peninsula and signed an agreement
to allow visits for some families separated for the last five decades.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 16, South Korea turned
off its anti-Communist broadcasts over border speakers at North Korea.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 20, In South Korea some
50 thousand members of the medical association went on strike to
protest a new system that bans them from selling most drugs.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A16)
2000 Jun 23, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, during a visit to South Korea, said American troops
would remain in the country indefinitely to maintain strategic
stability in the Pacific area.
(AP, 6/23/01)
2000 Jun 25, South Korea marked
the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean Conflict.
(AP, 6/25/01)
2000 Jun 30, North and South Korea
signed an agreement to allow 100 people each to reunite with families
across their border beginning Aug 15.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 22, In Seoul and Kyonggi
torrential rains caused floods and landslides and killed 9 people with
4 missing.
(SFC, 7/24/00, p.A16)
2000 Jul 25, In Seoul thousands
clashed with police in the biggest anti-American protests in 2 years.
(WSJ, 7/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 30, North and South Korea
agreed to hold regular high-level talks and to re-open their suspended
border liaisons to implement earlier agreements.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Jul 31, North and South Korea
agreed to reopen border liaison offices and reconnect a railway linking
their capitals.
(AP, 7/31/01)
2000 Aug 15, One hundred people
from North Korea and 100 people from South Korea held temporary
reunions with family members not seen in 50 years.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 15, South Korea released
3,586 prisoners in an amnesty.
(WSJ, 8/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 1, South Korea
repatriated 63 North Korean spies as a gesture of reconciliation.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Sep 15, Groundbreaking for a
new highway between North and South Korea was scheduled.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D5)
2000 Sep 17, In Korea a
ground-breaking ceremony was held at Imjingak for a railroad to connect
the capitals of North and South Korea.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Sep 25, In Cheju, South
Korea, the North and South Korea defense ministers, Cho Sung Tae and
Kim Il Chul, met and pledged to work for reconciliation.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A11)
2000 Sep, Hong Suk Chon (29),
celebrated actor, revealed his homosexuality and quickly lost 90%
of his jobs.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 13, The Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to Pres. Kim Dae-jung (74) of South Korea for his efforts
to make peace with North Korea.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 30, North and South Korea
made their 2nd exchange of 100 relatives each. Some 100,000 South
Koreans were on waiting lists for family visits.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.D8)
2000 Dec 10, Kim Dae-jung,
president of South Korea, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his
campaign to unify his country.
(SFC, 12/11/00, p.A2)
2000 Dec 22, Some 15,000 bank
workers went on strike to protest merger plans that threatened mass
layoffs.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.C5)
2000 In the US Elizabeth Kim
published "Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean
War Orphan."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, BR p.7)
2000 Oh Yeon Ho founded OhmyNews,
an online news service, in South Korea. It turned profitable in Sep
2003.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.A9)
2000 Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s
Unification Church of South Korea purchased a 1.48 million-acre
property in Paraguay.
(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A10)
2000 The population numbered
46,884,800.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A1)
2001 Feb 4, it was reported that
bank reforms and looming bankruptcies would put some 200,000 people out
of work this year.
(SSFC, 2/4/01, p.A17)
2001 cFeb 25, A 3rd reunion began
as groups of 100 arrived in North and South Korea.
(WSJ, 2/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 7, Pres. Kim Dae-jung met
with Pres. Bush in Washington. Bush said he did not plan to resume
talks with North Korea.
(WSJ, 3/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 21, Chung Yu Yung (86),
founder of Hyundai, died.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Mar 24, EU leaders ended a 2
day meeting in Stockholm announced that they would dispatch a team of
mediators to help the peace process between North and South Korea.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C6)
2001 Mar, A dry spell began that
threatened the rice crop.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.D6)
2001 Apr 16, Lee Bong Ju of South
Korea won the men’s Boston Marathon in 2:09:43. Catherine Ndereba of
Kenya won among the women in 2:23:53.
(WSJ, 4/17/01, p.A1)
2001 May 16, A fire at the Yeji
Institute near Kwangju killed 8 students.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 5, In South Korea 8
people died when a helicopter crashed into a power tower. Among the
dead was Kim Jong-jin, head of the Dongkuk Steel Mill.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.D6)
2001 Jul 15, Landslides and
flooding killed at least 40 people.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 22, Some 12,000 workers
of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions tried to march into Seoul
but were blocked by riot police. Pres. Dae-jung’s corporate restructure
programs had caused many layoffs.
(SFC, 7/23/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 17, Bang Sang-hoon,
president and publisher of Chosun Ilbo, was arrested with 2 other
prominent newspaper owners on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
Pres. Dae-jung was accused of using tax investigation to stifle his
critics.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A13)
2001 Aug 23, South Korea finished
paying off a $19.5 billion loan from the IMF that was used to recover
from the 1997-1998 Asian crash.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.D3)
2001 Sep 2, North Korea announced
a desire to reopen stalled peace talks with South Korea.
(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 3, The National Assembly
passed a no confidence vote on Unification Minister Lim Dong Won, the
chief architect of the "sunshine policy" towards North Korea, for being
too conciliatory toward the North.
(WSJ, 9/5/01, p.C1)
2001 Sep 6, North and South Korea
agreed to resume talks next week.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A16)
2001 Sep 15, North and South
Korea began a 4-day series of meetings.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A28)
2001 Sep 17, In South Korea
negotiators for the North and South concluded 2 days of talks and
agreed on an exchange of family visits. The North agreed to soon begin
construction on its side of a railroad to link the 2 sides.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)
2001 Oct 15, Japan’s PM Koizumi
visited South Korea and expressed his remorse at Sodaemun Independence
Park for suffering inflicted by Japan’s colonial rule.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct, The ruling Millennium
Democratic Party lost all 3 seats to the opposition Grand National
Party in by-elections.
(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A13)
2001 Nov 8, Kim Dae-jung quit as
head of the ruling party.
(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
2002 Feb 19, President Bush opened
a two-day visit to South Korea. Bush urged the “despotic regime” in
North Korea to reunite with the free South.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A14)(AP, 2/19/07)
2002 Feb 20, At the Salt Lake City
Winter Olympics, Jim Shea won the men's skeleton race, finishing the
two runs at Utah Olympic Park in one minute, 41.96 seconds. The victory
was the culmination of an emotional two months for Shea, whose
91-year-old grandfather, Olympic gold medal speedskater Jack Shea, died
four weeks earlier. American speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno won the 1,500
meters after South Korean Kim Dong-sung, who had crossed the finish
line ahead of him, was disqualified.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/07)
2002 Feb 21, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Zemin in Beijing and both agreed to work on the reunification of
North and South Korea.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 20, US began war games
with South Korea, the biggest ever.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 25, North and South Korea
issued a joint statement with plans to resume dialogue to improve
relations.
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 6, South Korea envoy Lim
Dong Won said North Korea is ready to resume dialogue with the US.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 15, In South Korea an Air
China jet Boeing 767, CA-129, with some 166 passengers crashed into a
mountain near Kimhae. 122 people died in the crash.
(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A3)(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A7)(AP, 4/15/07)
2002 May 5, In South Korea Pres.
Kim Dae-jung resigned from his Millennium Democratic Party in a bid to
insulate it from corruption charges surrounding his children and
several close aides.
(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A3)
2002 May 18, Kim Hong Gul, the
youngest son of Pres. Kim Dae-jung, was arrested for receiving bribes
from a jailed businessman.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A18)
2002 May 31, The World Cup soccer
tournament opened in Japan and South Korea for the first time with a
match between Senegal and defending champion France in South Korea.
Senegal upset France, 1-0.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A1)(AP, 5/31/03)
2002 Jun 5, Kim Hong Gul, the
youngest son of Pres. Kim Dae-jung, was indicted on charges of
accepting some $3 million in bribes from companies seeking government
contracts and tax evasion.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A11)
2002 Jun 13, Exit polls showed
South Korea's conservative opposition party swept most key local
government elections, winning a crucial test of the public mood ahead
of December's presidential election. The Grand National Party (GNP) won
a majority of races in 11 of 16 districts in a crushing defeat for
Pres. Kim Dae-jung.
(Reuters, 6/13/02)(SFC, 6/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 13, A US military vehicle
in South Korea ran over 2 girls (14), Shim Mi-son and Shin Hyo-sun. A
military jury later cleared Sgt. Fernando Nino of negligent homicide
charges. Driver Sgt. Mark Walker was acquitted Nov 22.
(SFC, 8/1/02, p.A15)(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A17)(SFC,
11/23/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 14, In South Korea up to
13 people died after a bus carrying tourists collided with a tanker
truck in rainy weather.
(Reuters, 6/14/02)
2002 Jun 23, Twenty-six North
Korean asylum seekers left South Korean and Canadian diplomatic
compounds in Beijing bound for South Korea, ending a monthlong
diplomatic standoff.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2002 Jun 29, A South Korean patrol
boat was sunk in the yellow Sea border waters and four South Koreans
were killed with 22 wounded. North and South Korea blamed each other
for the sea battle which cast a shadow over the South's World Cup
finale as well as reconciliation efforts on the peninsula.
(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 11, President Kim
Dae-jung picked South Korea's first female prime minister and replaced
six other ministers in a reshuffle seen as a bid to boost the
government's image before December presidential polls.
(Reuters, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 31, South Korean
lawmakers vetoed the country's first female prime minister, dealing a
blow to President Kim Dae-jung, who had nominated her to boost his
beleaguered government's image in an election year.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)
2002 Aug 3, North and South Korea
opened a fresh round of talks amid moves by the communist North to
improve ties with the United States and Japan and revitalize its
faltering economy.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 8, South Korea said 10
people were dead after four days of torrential rains that North Korea
reported had also caused scores of casualties and destroyed crops in
the hungry communist state.
(Reuters, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 9, President Kim Dae-jung
named the head of South Korea's largest business newspaper as prime
minister, the day after the opposition took control of parliament in a
by-election landslide.
(Reuters, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 22, Two US helicopter
pilots were reported lost in South Korea. Their bodies were found the
next day 13 miles south of Camp Page.
(SFC, 8/24/02, p.A9)
2002 Sep 1, Typhoon Rusa, the
worst typhoon to hit South Korea in 40 years, left at least 119 people
dead.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2002 Sep 2, Tens of thousands of
South Koreans heaved shovels to clear mud and debris from homes
devastated by Typhoon Rusa, the worst typhoon to hit the country in 40
years. The death toll from South Korea's worst typhoon in 40 years rose
to 113 as soldiers led a desperate search for 71 people still missing
after the weekend devastation.
(AP, 9/2/02)(Reuters, 9/3/02)(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 14, South and North Korea
have set a date to begin mine clearing and establish a military hotline
during reconstruction of railway links across their fortified border
divided for 50 years.
(Reuters, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep 28, In South Korea
torches from 44 diverse lands converged and rival South and North
Korean teams marched together as Asia kicked off its biggest festival
of sport.
(Reuters, 9/29/02)
2002 Nov 1, In South Korea Kim
Hong-up, the 2nd son of President Kim Dae-jung was sentenced to jail
and fined on graft charges, closing one chapter in scandals that have
marred the ageing democracy leader's final year in office.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Nov 4, In South Korea 15,000
civil servants went on strike protesting against both the proposal to
shorten the working week and a government ban on public sector unions.
(Reuters, 11/5/02)
2002 Nov 5, In South Korea some
120,000 auto workers (KCTU) struck Hyundai and 165 other workplaces as
unions escalated protests over working conditions ahead of December's
presidential elections.
(AP, 11/5/02)
2002 Dec 14, Tens of thousands of
South Koreans railed against the U.S. military and mourned two girls
killed by American soldiers in a road accident.
(Reuters, 12/14/02)
2002 Dec 19, In South Korea
elections Roh Moo-hyun (56) had 48.9 percent and Lee Hoi-chang 46.6
percent. Turnout among the nation's 35 million eligible voters was
70.2%.
(AP, 12/19/02)
2002 The Olympics will be
co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.
(WSJ, 11/26/99, p.A1)
2003 Jan 15, In South Korea the
Supreme Court ordered a vote recount for South Korea's national
election.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 23, South and North Korea
agreed to peacefully resolve the international standoff over North
Korea's nuclear programs after Cabinet-level talks.
(AP, 1/23/03)
2003 Feb 18, In Daegu,
South Korea, a fire raged through two packed subway trains after a man
lit a container of flammable liquid and tossed it, killing 196 people
and injuring 145. In August the perpetrator was sentenced to life in
prison.
(SFC, 2/19/03, A1)(WSJ, 2/19/03, p.A1)(AP,
2/27/03)(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 25, In South Korea
Roh Moo-hyun took power as president.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 26, South Korea’s
parliament approved Goh Kun, a former mayor of Seoul, to become PM in
the newly installed government of Pres. Roh Moo-hyun.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 1, In South Korea
some 100,000 older people held a pro-US rally in Seoul. Hours later
thousands of young people held an anti-US rally.
(SSFC, 3/2/03, A16)
2003 Mar 26, In South Korea a late
night fire in a grade school dormitory killed eight children.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 9, The US said it will
move its main military base in South Korea out of the capital as soon
as possible.
(AP, 4/9/03)
2003 Apr 30, South and North Korea
agreed in Cabinet-level talks to peacefully resolve the nuclear crisis
on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 May 12, North Korea declared
that the 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula
free of nuclear weapons was nullified, citing a "sinister" U.S. agenda.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 13, South Korea's
military deployed soldiers and trucks to the world's third-busiest port
to alleviate a crippling five-day truckers' strike.
(AP 5/13/03)
2003 May 16, South Korea Pres. Roh
Moo Hyun stopped in San Francisco following a visit with Pres. Bush.
(SFC, 5/17/03, p.D1)
2003 Jun 5, The United States
agreed to pull its ground troops away from the Demilitarized Zone
separating North and South Korea.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2003 Jun 14, North and South Korea
connected railways at their heavily armed border in a symbolic ceremony
linking the two countries for the first time in more than a
half-century. North Korea still had 7 miles of tracks to complete
before trains could run.
(AP, 6/14/03)(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A14)
2003 Jun 22, Thousands of workers
at South Korea's oldest bank ended a five-day strike by agreeing to a
deal that guaranteed wage hikes and job security. Workers objected to
the sale of the state bank to Shinhan Financial Group.
(AP, 6/22/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.71)
2003 Jun 29, Transportation across
South Korea was disrupted as railway workers opposed to a government
privatization plan went on strike for a second day.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jul 3, Tens of thousands of
South Korean auto and metal workers staged a half-day walkout to demand
a 40-hour workweek and better working conditions. Most people worked
half a day on Saturdays.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Aug 4, Chung Mong-hun (54) a
top executive of the Hyundai conglomerate, whose business spearheaded
reconciliation efforts with North Korea but ended up tangled in debt
and scandal, plunged to his death from his office window.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Sep 12, Typhoon Maemi, the
most powerful ever to ever hit South Korea, flipped over a floating
hotel, twisted massive cranes, killed at least 117 people. The main
port of Busan reported $1.3 billion in damage.
(WSJ, 9/16/03, p.A1)(AP, 9/13/04)
2003 Sep 15, More than 100 South
Korean tourists flew to North Korea's capital on the first commercial
flight between the two countries since they were divided nearly six
decades ago.
(AP, 9/15/03)
2003 Oct 18, South Korea pledged
to send more troops to Iraq but did not specify how many or whether
they would be combat troops.
(AP, 10/18/03)
2003 Oct 21, In South Korea a
tourist bus plummeted into a gorge, killing at least 17 people and
injuring 15 others.
(AP, 10/21/03)
2003 Oct 26, In South Korea a race
car crashed into the audience, killing three people and injuring six.
(AP, 10/26/03)
2003 Nov 9, In South Korea labor
activists and students battled riot police in one of the most violent
protests in years. Dozens were injured. Protesters, estimated by police
at 35,000 and by the labor confederation at 100,000, rallied in central
Seoul to protest damages lawsuits that managers have filed against
union leaders accused of staging illegal strikes.
(AP, 11/9/03)
2003 Nov 28, In South Korea
opposition leader Choe Byung-ryol began Day 3 of his hunger strike
against Pres. Roh Moo-hyun and corruption allegations against his
former aides. The standoff has paralyzed Parliament and derailed
deliberation on hundreds of bills.
(AP, 11/28/03)
2003 Nov 28, Pres. Roh Moo-hyun
said that he decided to send troops to Iraq hoping it would encourage
the US to continue to work to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.
(AP, 11/28/03)
2003 Nov 30, In western Iraq
guerrillas killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded a third in an ambush.
Gunmen shot and killed 2 South Korean electricians and wounded 2 others
as they drove apparently to a power transmission plant they were
working at in Tikrit.
(AP, 11/30/03)
2003 Dec 4, South Korea's
parliament, for the first time in 49 years, overrode a presidential
veto to clear the way for an independent investigation into corruption
allegations against three former aides of President Roh Moo-hyun.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Dec 12, In South Korea Park
Jie-won, a confidant of former Pres. Kim Dae-jung, was convicted and
sentenced to 12 years in jail for taking $12.5 million in bribes from a
major conglomerate and illegally remitting money to North Korea ahead
of a 2000 inter-Korean summit.
(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 22, South Korea and Japan
began negotiations on establishing a free-trade agreement between the
East Asian economic powerhouses.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 22, The South Korean
government dispatched hundreds of soldiers to farms to help slaughter
chickens and ducks in an effort to contain a contagious bird flu
spreading throughout the country.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 23, The South Korean
Cabinet approved a plan to send 3,000 troops to the northern oil town
of Kirkuk as early as April.
(AP, 12/23/03)
2003 The South Korean economy went
into recession.
(WSJ, 5/31/05, p.A14)
2003 Lone Star Funds, a private
equity firm based in Dallas, Texas, purchased the Korea Exchange Bank
of South Korea. In 2006 Lone Star engaged in a deal to sell the bank
for a $4.5 billion profit. Under public outrage Lone Star offered to
donate some $104 million to the government of South Korea.
(WSJ, 4/18/06, p.A1)
2003 Oh Yeon Ho turned his South
Korean Ohmy News website into a for profit firm. In 2006 his website
averaged 700,000 visitors and 2 million page view per day.
(Econ, 4/22/06, Survey p.9)
2004 Jan 4, South Korean
prosecutors, investigating corruption in the bidding on government
contracts by an affiliate of IBM Corp., indicted 48 government and
company officials.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 10, In South Korea
prosecutors arrested six lawmakers and the head of a conglomerate in a
broadening investigation of corruption allegations.
(AP, 1/10/04)
2004 Jan, In Seoul, South Korea, 9
former prostitutes sued 8 brothel operators for $842,000 in overdue
wages and compensation for suffering. 7 of the girls were minors and
said they were forced into sexual slavery.
(WPR, 3/04, p.25)
2004 Feb 11, South Korean
scientists reported that they had cloned human embryonic tissue cells.
(SFC, 2/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 28, It was reported that
70% South Koreans had high-speed Internet connections.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.61)
2004 Mar 12, South Korean markets
plunged and finance officials scrambled to emergency policy meetings
after President Roh Moo-hyun was stripped of his executive powers in an
unprecedented impeachment for illegal electioneering. Roh's powers were
reinstated by South Korea's Constitutional Court the following May.
(WSJ, 3/12/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/05)
2004 Feb, South Korea ratified its
1st free trade agreement. Its partner was Chile.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.39)
2004 Mar 14, In South Korea tens
of thousands of demonstrators streamed into the streets of Seoul to
protest the impeachment of Pres. Roh Moo-hyun. Some 50,000 had gathered
the night before.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 30, A North Korean
engineer credited with smuggling out documents on alleged gas chamber
experiments in the isolated communist state said that the papers were
fake.
(AP, 3/30/04)
2004 Mar, KIA Motors, a unit of
South Korea’s Hyundai group, decided to build a new $850 million plant
in Slovakia, where corporate and personal taxes were recently cut to a
flat 19%.
(Econ, 3/6/04, p.60)
2004 Apr 14, In South Korea the
386 generation (3 for in their 30s, 8 for coming of age in the 80s, and
6 for being born in the 60s) was reported to be playing a significant
role in the parliamentary elections.
(WSJ, 4/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 15, The liberal Uri Party
loyal to South Korea's impeached president Roh Moo Hyun, won the most
seats in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 4/15/04)(SFC, 4/16/04, p.A3)
2004 May 14, In South Korea the
Constitutional Court ruled to dismiss the impeachment case against
Pres. Roh. It agreed that Roh violated election rules when he spoke in
favor of the Uri party at a news conference.
(AP, 5/14/04)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A5)
2004 Jun 4, The two Koreas agreed,
after an all-night negotiating session, to try to ease tensions by,
among other things, ending blaring propaganda efforts on their border.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 7, US and South Korean
officials announced plans to withdraw a third of 37,000 US troops from
South Korea by the end of next year.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2004 Jun 13, In South Korea more
than 9,000 activists shouting "No to globalization!" marched through
downtown Seoul to protest a meeting of the World Economic Forum.
(AP, 6/13/04)
2004 Jun 18, South Korea said it
will send 3,000 soldiers to northern Iraq beginning in early August to
assist the U.S.-led coalition.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jun 20, The Arab satellite TV
network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape purportedly from al-Qaida-linked
militants showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and
pleading with his government to withdraw troops from Iraq.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2004 Jun 22, Islamic militants
beheaded a South Korean who pleaded in a heart-wrenching videotape that
"I don't want to die" after his government refused to pull its troops
from Iraq. Hours later, the United States launched an airstrike in
Fallujah, where residents said the strike hit a parking lot. 3 people
were killed and 9 wounded. Elsewhere 2 American soldiers were killed
and one wounded in an attack on a convoy near Balad, 50 miles north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/22/04)
2004 Jul 21, South Korea pledged
to expand economic ties with North Korea while Japan said it would seek
normal relations with the communist state when a dispute over the
North's nuclear ambitions is resolved.
(AP, 7/21/04)
2004 Jul 28, The second wave in
the biggest mass defection of North Koreans to South Korea arrived on a
flight from Vietnam, bringing the total in the two-day airlift to
nearly 460.
(WSJ, 7/27/04, p.A1)(AP, 7/28/04)
2004 Aug 12, South Korea’s central
bank cut interest rates from 3.75% to 3.5%.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.60)
2004 Oct 19, Thousands of sex
workers from across South Korea rallied, protested a crackdown on
prostitution and called for the resignation of the minister of gender
equality. South Korea's sex industry accounts for more than four
percent of gross domestic product, with its annual sales estimated at
24 trillion won (21 billion dollars) last year.
(AFP, 10/19/04)
2004 Nov 14, A powerful South
Korean labor union said hundreds of thousands of its members will
strike from next week against a bill that aims to curb union militancy
and allow companies to hire more temporary workers.
(AP, 11/14/04)
2004 Dec 30, South Korea's
parliament approved extending the mission of its 3,600 troops in Iraq
for another year.
(AP, 12/31/04)
2004 In North Korea the Kaesong
Industrial Complex was set up and seen as a potent symbol of
reconciliation between North and South Korea. It combined the South's
capital and technology with the North's cheap labor.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2005 Jan 1, South Korea was
forecast for 4.9% annual GDP growth with a population at 48.5 million
and GDP per head at $15,050.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)
2005 Jan 26, A South Korean
semiconductor maker said it had pioneered an innovation that will allow
energy efficient light-emitting diodes to light homes (LED for AC).
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Jan, A mobile-TV service was
launched in South Korea. By September 2008 mobile-TV services had
garnered some 7.5 million customers.
(Econ, 9/10/05, p.59)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.69)
2005 Apr 23, Leaders of the two
Koreas agreed to resume talks between their nations that broke down
last summer and to discuss the international standoff over the North's
nuclear weapons ambitions.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 May 19, South Korea
scientists announced the creation of 11 different stem cell lines
matching the DNA of human patients with a variety of diseases. The work
was later discredited.
(SSFC, 5/29/05, p.A17)(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 May 21, In South Korea Chung
Se-yung (76) died in Seoul. He helped build Hyundai Motor Co. into one
of the world’s biggest car companies.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.B4)
2005 May 22, A North Korean cargo
ship arrived in South Korea to pick up fertilizer, the first such
vessel from the isolated communist nation to dock here in 21 years.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 29, Thousands of South
Korean students rallying against the US military's five-decade presence
clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at
least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 Jun 10, President Bush and
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pressed North Korea to rejoin
deadlocked talks on its nuclear weapons program and tried to minimize
their own differences over how hard to push the reclusive communist
regime.
(AP, 6/11/05)
2005 Jun 19, A South Korean
soldier threw a grenade at his commander and then opened fire on fellow
soldiers near the border with communist North Korea, killing 8 and
injuring 2 others.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, The leaders of Japan
and South Korea failed to make progress on mending ties damaged by a
territorial dispute over islands in the Sea of Japan and a flap over
Tokyo's militaristic past during a tense summit.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, A high-level
delegation from North Korea arrived in Seoul for bilateral talks and
was immediately confronted by demonstrators who angered the visitors by
displaying posters of their leader, Kim Jong Il, tied up in ropes.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, The International
Whaling Commission meting in South Korea upheld its nearly
two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 23, The two Koreas agreed
to seek a peaceful resolution to the international standoff over the
North's nuclear program, but the rivals failed to set a date for
resuming stalled disarmament talks.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 28, South Korea's spy
agency said North Korea has cut most of its international phone lines
since late March over concerns that sensitive information about its
society will flow out of the isolated country.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, More than 1,000 South
Korean sex workers rallied demanding recognition as legitimate members
of society and the withdrawal of an anti-prostitution law they say
threatens their livelihoods and their health.
(Reuters, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 16, Yi Ku (73), the son
of Korea's last crown prince, died alone of a heart attack in Japan. He
was the last member of the Chosun dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392
until 1910.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 17, Pilots at Asiana
Airlines, South Korea's No. 2 carrier, went on strike.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 17, In Paraguay some 360
villagers marched on Asuncion to lobby for the expropriation of 128,500
acres of land containing their town of Puerto Casado, owned by Rev. Sun
Myung Moon’s Unification Church. The South Korean based church had
purchased a 1.48 million-acre property in 2000.
(WSJ, 7/18/05, p.A10)
2005 Jul 22, North Korea offered
to abandon its nuclear weapons if the two sides in the Korean War sign
a peace agreement to replace the 1953 cease-fire that halted
hostilities but did not resolve the conflict.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 27, Rescuers found the
bodies of four South Korean soldiers, a day after they were swept away
by a fast moving river during training exercises near the border with
North Korea.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Aug 4, South Korean
researchers reported their successful cloning of a dog. The puppy was
born 3 months earlier and was the only success of 1,095 embryos. In
2006 Dr. Hwang Woo Suk’s stem cell work was discredited but the cloning
of Snuppy supported.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/24/05, p.A1)(WSJ,
1/10/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 11, A senior South Korean
official said that North Korea has the right to a peaceful nuclear
program, a view conflicting with Washington in its disagreement with
the hard-line Pyongyang regime that has snagged disarmament talks.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 10, South Korea ordered
an end to a 25-day strike by unionized pilots at Asiana Airlines.
(WSJ, 8/11/05, p.A11)
2005 Aug 16, North Korean
officials visited South Korea's parliament for the first time in a
symbolic gesture of reconciliation with their democratic rivals.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 22, South Korea's Kia
Motors Corp. launched an assembly line producing its Spectra model at a
Russian factory.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 26, The first South
Korean tourists visited historic sites in Kaesong, North Korea, set to
become only the 2nd destination in the communist nation that can be
visited by ordinary citizens of its southern neighbor.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug 30, South Korea rolled
out its first supersonic trainer jet as President Roh Moo-Hyun vowed to
boost the country's aerospace and defense industries.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Sep 2, In South Korea an
apparent gas explosion sparked a fire at a public bathhouse building,
killing at least five people and injuring 43 others.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 2, A team of South Korean
scientists said they have developed a new technology that could open
the way to make new devices that could replace current silicon-based
semiconductors. The team led by Kim Hyun-Tak of the Electronics and
Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) said they had successfully
manufactured a "Mott Insulator, named after Sir Nevill Mott, a British
scientist who won the 1977 Nobel Physics Prize.
(AFP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 6, Typhoon Nabi lashed
southern Japan and South Korea, killing four people, injuring dozens
and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 12, Samsung Electronics
of South Korea unveiled the world's first 16-gigabit NAND flash memory
chip, a device the firm said will usher in a new era in data storage.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 16, South Korea and North
and South Korea pledged to work to ensure peace and reduce military
tensions on their divided peninsula.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 21, South Korea announced
it was developing highly sophisticated combat robots that could
complement the roles of human soldiers on battlefields.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep 29, Samsung Electronics
Co., the world's biggest maker of computer memory chips, announced that
it plans to invest $33 billion over seven years to build a chip
research and development facility and eight manufacturing lines south
of Seoul.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 1, In
South Korea Seoul's Mayor Lee Myung-bak led a ceremony for the
re-opening of the Chonggyechon stream buried beneath an elevated
highway for almost 50 years. Work to restore about 6 km of the stream
began in July, 2003, at a cost of around $350 million. The stream flows
through a narrow park that celebrates the history of Seoul.
(Reuters, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 3, In Sangju, South
Korea, concertgoers trying to enter a packed stadium sparked a
stampede, killing 11 and injuring 72 others.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 11, South Korea raised
interest rates .25% for the 1st time in 3 years to 3.5%.
(WSJ, 10/12/05, p.A14)
2005 Oct 12, In South Korea the
president's office said South Korea has proposed talks to take back
wartime control of its military from the United States.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 13, South Korea’s Samsung
Electronics agreed to plead guilty to US charges of price fixing memory
chips from 1999-2002 and to pay a $300 million fine. In 2006 3 Samsung
executives were sentenced to serve up to 8 months in federal prison and
fined $250,000 each.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.C1)(SFC, 3/23/06, p.C1)
2005 Oct 19, In South Korea Dr.
Woo Suk Hwang announced the establishment of an int’l. consortium to
generate hundreds of stem cell lines for researchers from human embryos
using cloning technology.
(SFC, 10/19/05, p.A4)
2005 Oct 28, North and South Korea
opened their first joint office to promote trade across the heavily
militarized border, just as Pyongyang is feuding with a South Korean
company about business in the North.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 1, Officials from North
and South Korea agreed to meet next month to work out details on
competing as a unified team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 5, In South Korea
China-controlled Ssangyong Motor sacked its president after the company
fell into the red in the first half of this year. So Jin-Kwan was
dismissed as company president and replaced by Choi Hyung-Tak, a
company executive.
(AP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 11, A scientific
partnership in high-tech cloning between US and South Korean
researchers broke up over the ethics of obtaining human egg cells.
(WSJ, 11/14/05, p.B1)
2005 Nov 13, Time magazine picked
South Korea’s Snuppy, the first cloned dog, as the most amazing
invention of 2005. In Dec Dr. Hwang Woo Suk’s stem cell work was
discredited and doubt was cast on the cloning of Snuppy.
(AP, 11/13/05)(WSJ, 12/24/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 15, In South Korea 2
farmers were killed during a protest in Seoul ahead of WTO meetings.
The farmers were angry over moves to further open the country's rice
market.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Nov 16, US President George
W. Bush arrived in South Korea ahead of a summit of Asia Pacific
leaders after making a bold call for China to launch democratic reforms.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 17, President Bush in
south Korea took a hardline stance against North Korea, saying the US
won't help the communist nation build a civilian nuclear reactor to
produce electricity until it dismantles its nuclear weapons programs.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 17, Chinese President Hu
Jintao assured a Pacific Rim forum in South Korea that there is nothing
to fear from his fast-developing country, which he said has great
potential to contribute to global peace.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 18, South Korean riot
police used high pressure hoses to hold back protesters chanting
anti-Bush slogans from the site of the APEC summit at Busan.
(WSJ, 11/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 18, South Korea announced
plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq, a day after President
Bush met with his South Korean counterpart and praised him as a staunch
ally in the Iraq conflict.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 19, Bush and other
Pacific Rim leaders in South Korea urged Europe to show new flexibility
on farm subsidies, an issue that has stalled global trade negotiations.
The 21 APEC leaders promised to boost cooperation on fighting terrorism
and preparing for a possible flu pandemic. They endorsed a roadmap for
lifting trade barriers across APEC member countries and launched an
initiative to protect intellectual property.
(AP, 11/19/05)(SFC, 11/19/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 1, About 60,000 South
Korean workers defied a government warning by going on strike to demand
better protection for part-time workers.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 8, In South Korea
international activists kicked off a conference on human rights abuses
in North Korea by calling for the overthrow of Kim Jong Il's regime and
accusing Pyongyang of enslaving its people.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 11, In South Korea the
government ordered striking pilots at Korean Air back to work on the
4th day of a walkout.
(WSJ, 12/12/05, p.A17)
2005 Dec 14, South Korean farmers
clashed with police outside a World Trade Organization meeting for a
second day as the US blamed the EU for holding up stalled global trade
talks.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 15, A doctor who provided
human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said in a
broadcast that the South Korean scientist admitted that most of the
stem cells produced for a key research paper were faked.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 23, South Korean
researcher Hwang Woo-suk resigned from his university after the school
said he fabricated stem-cell research that had raised hopes of new
cures for hard-to-treat diseases.
(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 29, South Korea's top
university said that Hwang Woo-suk fabricated all of the stem cells he
said were cloned from individual patients, a shattering blow to the
disgraced scientist's reputation as a medical pioneer.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 29, The South Korean film
“The King and the Clown” had its premier. It was based on a 15th
century monarch and a troupe of entertainers invited to his court.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.44)
2005 South Korea’s communication
ministry created a rule forcing cell phones connecting to the Internet
to use domestic software called Wireless Internet Platform
Interoperability (WIPI) to make it easier for local programmers and
cellphone service companies to offer Web-based services. In 2008 South
Korea eliminated usage of WIPI effective April 2009.
(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.B3)
2005 South Korea’s Hyundai Motor
Co. opened a site near Montgomery, Alabama, for its 1st US assembly
plant.
(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/14/06, p.D3)
2006 Jan 6, Stalinist North Korea
demanded billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities
against its prisoners of war and spies formerly held in South Korea.
The demand sparked outrage among politicians in Seoul.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 8, The US and South Korea
withdrew their last remaining staff from the site of two North Korean
nuclear reactors, ending a decade-old construction project amid
rekindled tension over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 13, South Korea agreed to
resume imports of some American beef, banned two years ago over fears
of mad cow disease. The US government pressed South Korea to accept all
US beef imports.
(AFP, 1/13/06)
2006 Jan 23, The US Treasury
Department briefed South Korean officials on its investigations into
suspected illegal financial activities by North Korea that Washington
says helped fund Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 26, A South Korean court
ordered Dow Chemical and Monsanto, US manufacturers of the defoliant
Agent Orange, to pay $62.5 million in medical compensation to 20,000
Korean veterans of the Vietnam War and their families.
(AP, 1/26/06)(WSJ, 1/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 2, South Korea decided to
begin talks with the US toward achieving a free trade agreement between
the two countries.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 2, South Korea's spy
agency said that North Korea was not currently producing counterfeit
currency, apparently contradicting US allegations that have become the
latest obstacle in nuclear disarmament talks with the communist country.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, North and South Korea
agreed to hold military talks on the level of generals for the first
time in nearly two years and the South said they would focus on
preventing naval clashes.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 7, South Korean
conglomerate Samsung Group said it would donate more than $800 million
in corporate and private assets to charity as part of an apology for
several recent scandals.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 9, North Korea has
requested 150,000 tons of fertilizer from South Korea, months after it
demanded that the UN World Food Program halt emergency food shipments.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 24, South Korea’s Fair
Trade Commission released its report formalizing its preliminary ruling
against Microsoft late last year. MS vowed to appeal the decision which
concluded that MS had abused its market dominance. The commission
ordered MS to offer alternative versions of Windows.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb, Lee Kun-hee, patriarch
of Samsung, returned to South Korea from the US following the
expiration of the stature of limitations on an indictment over alleged
illegal political donations during the 1997 presidential campaign.
(Econ, 4/22/06, p.41)
2006 Mar 2, North and South Korea
opened high-level military talks for the first time in almost two
years, aiming to reduce tension along the world's most heavily
fortified border and prevent accidental naval skirmishes.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 3, South Korea rejected
North Korea's demand that the countries redraw their western sea
border, ending two days of high-level military talks without agreement.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 6, In Seoul
representatives of South Korea and the US agreed to begin negotiations
in June on establishing a free trade agreement. A block away movie
actors, directors and farmers staged protests against any such deal.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 13, South Korea’s Kia
Motors Corp. said it will build a $1.2 billion factory in West Point,
Ga., its first in the US. Toyota said it will build a plant in
Lafayette, Ind.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.D3)
2006 Mar 14, South Korea's PM Lee
Hae-chan resigned after drawing a firestorm of criticism for playing
golf March 1, rather than overseeing the government's response to a
railway strike.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 15, South Korea formally
opened new immigration checkpoints for travelers crossing the heavily
fortified border with North Korea, symbolizing Seoul's hopes for
boosting exchanges with its longtime communist foe.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 20, A Chinese cargo ship
hit an anchored freighter and sank off South Korea's west coast,
killing at least three Chinese crew members.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 28, In South Korea
prosecutors formally arrested the top executive of an affiliate of
Hyundai Motor Co. in an investigation into suspicions that South
Korea's largest carmaker created slush funds through its 39
subsidiaries for bribery.
(AP, 3/28/06)(WSJ, 4/8/06, p.1)
2006 Apr 4, The South Korean ship
628 Dongwon was seized by eight armed assailants, who approached in two
speed boats firing guns off the coast of Somalia. 25 crew members were
reported safe and officials sought their release. The sailors were
released July 30 after more than $800,000 in ransom was paid.
(AP, 4/5/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Apr 5, Militants who captured
the South Korean fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia denied they
were pirates and said they were defending their waters from illegal
fishing.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 11, Shin Sang-Ok (79),
South Korean film director, died.
(Econ, 4/29/06, p.90)
2006 Apr 19, Japan defied South
Korean protests and dispatched two ships to begin a maritime survey
near disputed islets between the two nations, raising the stakes in the
territorial standoff.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 19, Hyundai Motor Co.
said its chairman and his son will donate $1.1 billion worth of
personal assets to the public amid a slush fund scandal engulfing South
Korea's largest automaker.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 22, Japan and South Korea
defused a tense standoff over disputed waters, with Japan withdrawing a
plan to survey the area and South Korea delaying plans to submit name
proposals for underwater features.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 27, In South Korea state
prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman
Chung Mong-koo amid a bribery and slush fund scandal that has rocked
the large automaker.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, In South Korea
prosecutors arrested Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo in an
embezzlement and slush fund scandal.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 May 4, Thousands of police
armed with batons stormed an abandoned school in South Korea to evict
activists who were protesting plans to expand a US military base,
sparking clashes that resulted in dozens of injuries.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 5, South Korean
protesters clashed with police for the second day at a planned site for
a new US military base, leaving scores of people wounded, some
seriously. A military training jet crashed during an air show in South
Korea. The pilot was presumed killed, but no spectators were hurt.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 12, South Korean
prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk on
charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal
over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 13, Thousands of
activists held a candlelit vigil urging US troops to withdraw from
South Korea, a week after violent clashes left 210 injured.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 13, The United Arab
Emirates and South Korea signed a series of accords, including a
memorandum of understanding on stockpiling Emirati oil in South Korea,
on the second day of a visit by the South Korean president.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 16, South Korean
prosecutors indicted Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo in an
embezzlement and slush fund scandal. He was later convicted of
embezzling $90 million from his company. In August, 2008, he was
pardoned by Pres. Lee Myung-bak.
(AP, 5/16/06)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.13)
2006 May 20, A man wielding a box
cutter attacked Park Geun-hye (54), the leader of South Korea's main
opposition party, slashing her face during a campaign rally. Park's
mother, Yook Young-soo, was fatally shot in 1974. Five years later,
Park's father was assassinated by the then-chief of the state
intelligence agency.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 22, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
announced it was withdrawing from the highly competitive South Korean
retail market, agreeing to sell its 16 stores to the country's top
discount chain.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Dr. Lee Jong-wook
(61) died following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He
spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles against
SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a UN agency.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 24, North Korea abruptly
canceled groundbreaking test runs of trains across its highly guarded
border with South Korea, citing an atmosphere of confrontation.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, South Korea’s
Constitutional Court ruled that a law granting massage licenses only to
the visually impaired was discriminatory against others who wanted to
practice the trade.
(http://tinyurl.com/nreer)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.49)
2006 May 30, In South Korea Daewoo
Group founder Kim Woo-Choong (69) was sentenced to 10 years in prison
for fraud and embezzlement relating to the collapse of the firm under
82 billion dollars of debt in one of the world's largest corporate
failures. Kim Woo-Choong had admitted to accounting fraud and
embezzlement worth over $30 million.
(AFP, 5/30/06)(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.9)
2006 May 31, South Korea's main
opposition party won 11 of 16 key regional posts in local elections,
according to exit polls, riding to victory on nationwide sympathy for a
leader wounded in a knife assault and widespread disenchantment with
the government.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 1, Chung Dong-young, the
leader of South Korea's ruling party, resigned one day after the
conservative opposition won 12 of 16 key regional posts in local
elections.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 6, South Korean PM Han
Myung-Sook embarked on a four-nation European tour which will take her
to France, Portugal, Bulgaria and Germany.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 26, A new survey said
Moscow has eclipsed Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. The
Russian capital moved up 3 spots from a year ago thanks to a recent
property boom. South Korea's Seoul ranked second on the list, up from
fifth last year.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jul 11, In South Korea more
than 10,000 workers and activists rallied in the 2nd day of
demonstrations aimed at blocking a free-trade agreement under
discussion with the US.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 12, In South Korea some
70,000 people, including 13,000 farmers, rallied in a plaza in downtown
Seoul on the third straight day of anti-FTA demonstrations.
(AFP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 18, South Korea's
disaster agency said a fifth straight day of monsoon rains have left 19
people dead and 31 missing.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 19, South Korea's
president condemned North Korea for potentially sparking an arms race
with its recent missile launches, while the North said it was ending
reunions between relatives separated by the Korean Peninsula divide. An
aid group in North Korea said floods and landslides have left more than
100 people dead or missing.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 28, South Korea sent a
satellite into orbit primarily for making geographical surveys but also
possibly for tracking military movements in North Korea, which raised
regional security concerns by launching missiles on July 5.
(Reuters, 8/1/06)
2006 Jul 31, In South Korea Jeong
Kyung-hak (48) was arrested on charges of being a spy for North Korea
and having illegally arrived on Jul 27 with forged Philippines identity
documents.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 3, Afghanistan's
government ordered around 1,500 South Korean Christians who came to the
Islamic republic for a "peace festival" to leave the country. In
southern Afghanistan a suicide car bomb in a crowded market killed 21
civilians and two roadside bombs in the same province killed a Canadian
soldier and wounded four others.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AFP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 9, A South Korean
citizens' group said North Korea has requested help from South Korea to
cope with devastating floods.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 14, South Korea with a
population of around 48 million ranked as the world’s 10th largest
economy, just behind Canada and ahead of Brazil.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid
group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left about
54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 21, South Korea and the
US launched joint military exercises, held annually since 1975, despite
protests from North Korea. The Ulchi Focus Lens exercises were
scheduled to run until September 1.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Sep 13, In South Korea
hundreds of workers bulldozed homes in a village to make way for the
expansion of a US military base set to become the Americans' new
headquarters, despite strong objections from protesters.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF
approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea, Turkey,
and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 28, South Korea and the
US agreed on a program to reshape their military alliance and give
Seoul a bigger role in countering any North Korean attack. The two
sides signed new terms for the decades-old alliance after talks in
Washington.
(AFP, 9/29/06)
2006 Oct 2, An informal UN poll
showed that South Korea's foreign minister Ban Ki-Moon (67) has nearly
full support from the Security Council, including its five
veto-wielding members, and appears almost certain to succeed Kofi Annan
as secretary-general of the United Nations.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 5, The Latvian and Thai
candidates dropped out of the race to become the next U.N. chief on
Thursday, leaving South Korea's foreign minister as the lone remaining
contender and near-certain successor to Kofi Annan.
(AP, 10/5/06)
2006 Oct 9, The UN Security
Council officially nominated South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon
to be the next UN secretary-general.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 13, The UN General
Assembly appointed South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the
next UN secretary-general. The veteran diplomat who grew up during a
war that divided his country pledged to make peace with North Korea a
top priority.
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 20, South Korea Defense
Minister Yoon Kwang-ung met with US Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and agreed that Seoul will retake full wartime operational
control of Korean forces from the US sometime between 2009 and 2012.
(www.voanews.com/english/2006-10-20-voa84.cfm)
2006 Oct 20, In North Korea tens
of thousands gathered in Pyongyang to laud the country's first atomic
test. A South Korean news agency reported that North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il said Pyongyang didn't plan to carry out any more nuclear tests
and expressed regret about the country's first-ever atomic detonation
last week [see Oct 24].
(AP, 10/20/06)(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 22, Choi Kyu-hah (88),
former president of South Korean (1979-80), died of heart failure. Choi
became acting president in 1979 after the assassination of President
Park Chung-hee. He was forced to resign just eight months later
following a military coup.
(AP, 10/22/06)
2006 Oct 24, Liu Jianchao, Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did
not apologize for his regime's nuclear test, as some South Korean media
had reported [see Oct 20], but is willing to return to six-party talks
under certain conditions.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 26, South Korea said it
will ban the entry of North Korean officials who fall under a UN travel
restriction.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 30, The first shipment of
US beef in nearly three years arrived in South Korea on Monday after
the country lifted an import ban triggered by fears of mad cow disease.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Nov 10, Asian nations reached
their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed
the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other
nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail
routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and
expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the
Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 16, South Korea said it
will reverse its long-standing refusal to join international efforts
criticizing North Korea's human rights record and vote in favor of a UN
resolution against the communist regime's alleged abuses.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 21, Cambodian PM Hun Sen,
other senior officials and South Korea’s President Roh Moo-Hyun arrived
in Siem Reap, the gateway to the famed Angkor temple complex, to kick
off the Angkor-Gyeongju Culture Expo, a joint cultural festival that
runs through January 2007.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 22, Tens of thousands of
South Korean workers held rallies and labor strikes to oppose a free
trade agreement with the US and demand better working conditions.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 23, Japan decided to
temporarily suspend South Korean poultry imports due to a suspected
bird flu outbreak that has killed around 6,000 chickens.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 26, South Korean
quarantine officials began slaughtering more than 200,000 poultry after
an outbreak of the virulent H5N1 form of bird flu at a chicken farm.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 27, Officials said South
Korea planned to kill cats and dogs in the area of Iksan to try to
prevent the spread of bird flu after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1
virus at a chicken farm last week.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 28, The South Korean
government approved a plan to halve the size of its troop deployment in
Iraq but to extend the mission for another year.
(AFP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 6, South Korea mobilized
45,000 riot police to thwart banned protests as crucial talks on
forging a free trade agreement with the United States faltered. The US
and South Korea reached agreement on sharing costs for the deployment
of US troops on the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 12, South Korea opened
the world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant and expects to reduce
its imports of heavy oil by 500,000 barrels a year as a result. South
Korea currently relies heavily on nuclear power plants which supply 40%
of demand.
(AFP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 14, South Korea's Ban
Ki-moon formally took the reins of the UN as the institution grappled
with internal reforms, volatility in the Middle East and international
standoffs over the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 22, South Korea rejected
the latest shipment of US beef and asked Washington to explain why it
contained unacceptable levels of the toxic chemical dioxin.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Ship builders in South Korea
took almost 40% of global orders this year. China won 23% and Japan
almost 20%. The orders from China were up from 12% in 2001.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.80)
2007 Jan 1, South Korean diplomat
Ban Ki-moon became the UN’s eighth secretary-general.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 3, South Korea’s official
media reported that Paek Nam Sun, North Korea's foreign minister and
the country's top diplomat for nearly 10 years, has died at the age of
78.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 10, Militants kidnapped
nine South Korean oil workers and one local worker in the Niger Delta
region of southern Nigeria, bringing the total number of foreigners
currently held hostage there to 18.
(AFP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, South Korean
officials said that the bird flu virus had been transmitted to a human
during a recent outbreak among poultry, but the person showed no
symptoms of disease.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 12, In Nigeria 9 South
Korean pipeline workers and a Nigerian kidnapped in southern Nigeria
were released with the help of a youth group.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 15, In South Korea
unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co. began a promised partial strike
amid a dispute with management over bonuses.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 18, South Korean
regulators fined the Hyundai Motor Co. 23 billion won ($24.5 million)
for violating competition rules.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.67)
2007 Feb 10, In South Korea a fire
at a detention center killed 10 people and injured 17 others, mostly
Chinese, who were waiting deportation for illegal entry to the country.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2007 Mar 2, South Korea delayed a
full resumption of aid shipments to North Korea until the communist
regime shuts down its main atomic reactor under an international
agreement to take steps toward abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
A South Korean activist said 80 North Korean refugees are hiding in
various Asian countries and preparing to seek asylum in the United
States. North and South Korea agreed to resume reunions of families
that have been separated by their divided border.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 7, Han Myung-sook,
South Korea's prime minister, stepped down saying she would think about
running for the nation's top job. Han was the first woman to hold the
government's No. 2 position, although the job is largely ceremonial in
a country where power is concentrated around the president.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 10, In South Korea riot
police used a water cannon to break up a noisy but peaceful street
protest in downtown Seoul against a proposed free trade agreement
between South Korea and the United States.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 22, South Korea said it
would build a park in memory of victims of the U.S. Army's mass killing
of South Korean refugees at the village of No Gun Ri.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, A South Korean
presidential panel removed a year-old ban on research into the cloning
of human embryonic stem cells.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Apr 1, In South Korea taxi
driver Huh Se-uk (53) drove through heavy security into the driveway of
a Seoul hotel where trade talks with the US were taking place. He
sprayed himself with flammable fluid and lit a fire, suffering
third-degree burns. Se-uk died from his wounds on April 15.
(Reuters, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 2, South Korea and the US
agreed to a trade pact with only minutes to go before a deadline.
Last-minute haggling meant missing two self-imposed deadlines over the
weekend. Some estimates say the agreement could add $20 billion to the
already more than $70 billion of two-way trade each year.
(Reuters, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 10, Officials from North
and South Korea's Red Cross societies resumed talks on resolving the
issue of South Korean prisoners of war and civilian abductees believed
held in the communist country.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, North Korea replaced
its prime minister during a session of its rubber-stamp parliament. US
envoys entered South Korea from North Korea in a rare border crossing
after securing the remains of six American soldiers from the Korean War
and pushing for action on the North's nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 19, North and South Korea
formally opened economic aid talks, after a delay caused by Pyongyang's
insistence that Seoul pledge food assistance to the impoverished nation
despite its failure to live up to a pact on nuclear disarmament.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 20, German Defence
Minister Franz Josef Jung arrived in South Korea to discuss the
proposed sale of second-hand Patriot missiles and other military issues.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 22, South Korea agreed to
send 400,000 tons of rice to impoverished North Korea despite the
communist government's failure to meet a deadline to shut down its
nuclear reactor.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 May 2, The South Korean
government announced its first-ever plan to seize assets gained by
alleged Korean collaborators during Japanese colonial rule as part of
efforts to reconcile with its past more than 60 years after the end of
the peninsula's occupation. 2 defectors to South Korea described how
they had been tortured in a North Korean prison camp, as a South Korean
rights group issued a report on abuses of detainees in the communist
state.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 4, The divided Koreas
agreed to discuss historic trial runs of cross-border railways, as
Washington cautioned Seoul against rushing to embrace Pyongyang before
it takes steps to dismantle its nuclear program.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 7, South Korea and the
European Union started free trade talks aimed at linking Asia's third
largest economy to the world's biggest trading bloc.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, Military officials
from North and South Korea reached an agreement clearing the way for
the first railway journeys across their heavily fortified border for
half a century.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 11, North and South Korea
adopted a military agreement enabling the first train crossing of their
heavily armed border in more than half a century.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 12, A South Korean cargo
vessel sank after colliding with a Chinese freighter in heavy fog in
waters off northeast China. 16 crew were on board the 3,800-ton Golden
Rose when it sank. The crew of the Chinese ship, the 4,800-ton
JinSheng, were unharmed and returned safely to Dalian.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 17, The first trains
since 1953 traversed the Korean DMZ in a peace gesture.
(WSJ, 5/18/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 8, South Korea lifted a
de facto ban on American beef imports, after the US confirmed that only
two shipments meant for domestic consumption were exported mistakenly.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 24, A news report said
South Korea has extracted gas hydrate, an alternative fuel source Seoul
hopes might help reduce its heavy dependence on oil imports, in its
eastern territorial waters.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jul 2, A South Korean court
sentenced tycoon Kim Seung Youn to 18 months in prison over a beating
attack earlier this year against bar workers involved in a scuffle with
his son. The sentence was shelved on Sep 11, due his deteriorating
health.
(AP, 7/2/07)(SFC, 9/12/07, p.C5)
2007 Jul 3, South Korea enacted
legislation to remove bureaucratic barriers in the security industry
and help brokers, banks and insurers to consolidate. To date no foreign
had listed on the Seoul stock exchange.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.78)
2007 Jul 19, Taliban gunmen
abducted 23 members of a South Korean church group in southern
Afghanistan. The next day a purported spokesman for the Islamic militia
said it will question them about their activities in Afghanistan before
deciding their fate. Two hostages were fatally shot; the rest were
later freed. In northern Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew himself up
outside a police station, killing one civilian and wounding 25 other
people. In Helmand's Marja district, Taliban militants ambushed police,
leaving six officers dead and two others wounded. 2 separate bombings
in southern Afghanistan left five civilians dead, while a Taliban
ambush killed six police officers. A car bomb targeting a US-led
coalition convoy in Helmand province's Sangin district killed two
civilians and wounded two coalition troops. A mine exploded under a
civilian car in Kandahar province's Zhari district, killing three
civilians.
(AP, 7/19/07)(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/19/08)
2007 Jul 25, A police official
said that Taliban militants told him they shot and killed one of 23
South Korean hostages. Militants told him the hostage was sick and
couldn't walk, and therefore was shot. 2 Western officials said some
others from the group of captives were freed and taken to a US military
base. The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported eight Koreans had
been released. A German journalist and two Afghans colleagues
apparently kidnapped by Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan were
freed.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, North Korea walked
out of military talks with South Korea, ending 3 days of high-level
negotiations with no agreement amid a lingering dispute over their
shared sea border.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 29, Whang Joung-il (52),
a senior South Korean diplomat in Beijing, died hours after becoming
ill after eating a tuna sandwich. His death left the envoy's family and
his government asking China for an explanation.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 1, South Korea’s
Agriculture Ministry halted quarantine inspections of American beef
shipments after finding a banned vertebral column in a recent shipment.
Without such inspections, the beef cannot be brought to market.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 1, A financial watchdog
said British Airways has been fined a record 121.5 million pounds (180
million euros, $246 million) after admitting collusion with Virgin
Atlantic over fuel surcharges on tickets. British Airways and Korean
Air (for collusion with Lufthansa) agreed to pay $300 million each in
fines and plead guilty to federal charges that they colluded with other
airlines to set ticket prices.
(AFP, 8/1/07)(SFC, 8/2/07, p.C2)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.48)
2007 Aug 13, In South Korea a
family of five fell to their deaths from a Ferris wheel after two cars
collided at an amusement park in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 13, In Afghanistan 2
women among the 23 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July
were freed on a rural roadside and then driven to a US base. A German
held hostage said in a telephone conversation orchestrated by his
captors that he was in ill health and the Taliban had threatened him
with death.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 28, The Taliban agreed to
free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July after
the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and keep a
promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping
build a bridge, killing three soldiers.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, Taliban militants
released 12 of 19 South Korean captives they promised to free under a
deal struck with the South Korean government to resolve a nearly
six-week hostage crisis. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded
bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and two Afghan
soldiers. A Canadian soldier, based in the Afghan capital Kabul, died
of a gunshot wound after he was found injured in his room.
(AFP, 8/29/07)(Reuters, 8/29/07)(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Aug 30, Taliban militants
released the last 7 South Korean hostages. Mullah Brother, a wanted
Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a US-led raid in
the southern province of Helmand.
(AFP, 8/30/07)(Reuters, 8/30/07)(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a barrage of rockets missed a US-led coalition base but hit
houses in the nearby village of Babul, killing 10 civilians and
wounding seven. Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, a suicide car
bomber targeting a patrol of German soldiers killed two Afghan soldiers
and wounded 10 others. A senior Afghan official close to the
negotiations alleged the South Koreans paid a ransom for their released
hostages.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 16, Six South Koreans
died and four were missing in South Korea after typhoon Nari hit the
country's southern coast.
(Reuters, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep, Lotte, South Korea’s
biggest department store chain, opened its first foreign store in
Moscow, Russia.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.72)
2007 Oct 2, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il showed scant enthusiasm for the visiting South Korean
president, while orchestrated crowds of thousands cheered the start of
the second summit between the divided Koreas since World War II.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 4, The leaders of North
and South Korea pledged to seek a peace treaty to replace the Korean
War's 1953 cease-fire and expand projects to reduce tension across the
world's last Cold War frontier.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 11, Pope Benedict XVI
appealed to South Koreans' "inherent moral sensibility" to reject
embryonic stem cell research and human cloning after the country
decided to let embryonic stem cell research resume.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Nov 5, South Korea’s Home
Affairs Ministry announced a campaign to promote bicycle use as a way
to cope with traffic, pollution and soaring oil prices.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 7, The Cosco Busan, a
65,131 ton Greek-owned container ship leased by Hanjin Shipping of
South Korea, hit a protective shield at the base of a tower of the Bay
Bridge. The Bridge was not damaged, but the ship suffered a gash and
spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the SF Bay. By the end
of the month estimated bird deaths due to the oil topped 20,000. The
cleanup cost was later estimated at some $61 million. A year later
federal authorities still held 6 Chinese crew members for their
testimony. In July, 2009, Cosco Busan Capt. John Cota (61) was
sentenced to 10 months in prison, becoming the first ship’s pilot in US
history to be sent to prison for an accident. On August 13, 2009, Fleet
Management Ltd. of Hong Kong pleaded guilty to charges of water
pollution and falsifying documents and agreed to pay $10 million in
fines.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A1)(SFC,
12/19/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/08, p.A2)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.C1)(SFC, 8/14/09,
p.D1)
2007 Nov 11, Tens of thousands of
South Korean farmers and workers clashed with riot police at a massive
rally against a free trade agreement with the United States.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 12, In South Korea the
Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) disclosed the names of
3 former and incumbent prosecutors, who have received money regularly
from Samsung Group. CPAJ urged the prosecution to investigate the
conglomerate's alleged bribery, slush fund creation, and other
irregularities.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 14, The prime ministers
of North and South Korea met for the first time in 15 years, hoping to
extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders
last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 16, North and South Korea
agreed to launch rail service across their heavily armed border for the
first time in more than half a century, a move symbolizing the growing
reconciliation between the two sides.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 24, South Korea's first
bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of
ducks in the country's south. The government said the deadly H5N1 virus
was not involved.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 26, A South Korean aid
group said North Korea has resumed frequent public executions, among
them a factory chief accused of making international phone calls who
was shot in a stadium before 150,000 spectators.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, The defense chiefs of
North and South Korea began a rare meeting to discuss easing tension
across their disputed sea border on a harmonious note, pledging to end
the peninsula's division.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 28, North and South Korea
struggled to resolve differences over creating a joint fishing zone
around their disputed sea border at a second day of rare defense talks
in Pyongyang.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, The top defense
officials from North and South Korea agreed on security arrangements
for the first-ever regular train service across their heavily fortified
border.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 7, A crane-carrying
vessel collided with the Hebei Spirit, an oil tanker off of South
Korea's west coast, spilling nearly 80,000 barrels of crude oil in what
was believed to be South Korea's largest offshore oil leak. On Jan 21,
2008, courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the
tanker on charges relating to the spill.
(AP, 12/7/07)(AP, 12/20/07)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2007 Dec 8, South Korea's
worst-ever oil spill reached the country's southwest coastline,
polluting beaches with pungent sludge and threatening valuable sea
farms.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 11, Environmentalists
warned that a scenic coastal region could take years to recover from
South Korea's worst oil spill, as over 19,000 people worked to contain
or clean up the slick.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 11, North and South Korea
began regular freight train service across their heavily armed border
for the first time in more than a half century, in another symbolic
step in their reconciliation.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, Officials said South
Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent
protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human
genetic diseases.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 14, North and South Korea
ended three days of talks without an agreement on creating a shared
fishing zone to defuse tensions along their disputed sea border.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 14, South Korea brought
home 195 army medics and engineers from Afghanistan, ending its
five-year deployment to help rebuild the war-ravaged country at
Washington's request.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 19, In South Korea former
Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak (66) claimed victory in presidential election
as voters overlooked fraud allegations to give him a landslide win on
hopes he will revive the economy. This was also Myung-bak’s birthday
and 37th wedding anniversary.
(AP, 12/19/07)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.49)
2007 Dec 25, A South Korean ship
carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid sank on its way to Taiwan and 14
sailors were feared drowned. One sailor was rescued.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 26, South Korea's cabinet
approved a bill setting up a fraud inquiry into president-elect Lee
Myung-Bak, one week after the conservative opposition candidate won a
landslide election victory.
(AFP, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 28, South Korea's
parliament voted to extend the country's troop deployment in Iraq for
another year, amid protests by activists opposed to the decision. South
Korea has 650 troops in Iraq.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2008 Jan 7, In South Korea fire
tore through a refrigeration warehouse under construction in an
industrial district south of Seoul, killing 40 people and sending toxic
fumes into the air.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 16, South Korea's
conservative president-elect Lee Myung-bak revealed plans to scrap the
government ministry that has preached reconciliation with North Korea,
after pledging to be tougher on Pyongyang than his liberal predecessors.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 18, In South Korea a fish
merchant was critically ill after setting himself ablaze during a rally
demanding greater compensation for South Korea's worst oil spill.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 25, North and South Korea
held working-level military talks, the first dialogue between the two
countries this year, as Seoul's conservative president-elect prepared
to take office with calls for a tougher stance toward Pyongyang.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 31, In South Korea a
court ruled against Samsung and its chairman Lee Kun-hee in the
nation’s biggest civil lawsuit. It ordered them to pay $2.7 billion to
the creditors of Samsung Motors.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.71)
2008 Feb 2, South Korean car giant
Hyundai Motor Co opened a second plant in India, making the country its
biggest foreign manufacturing site.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 10, In South Korea a fire
destroyed the 610-year old wooden structure at the top of the Namdaemun
gate. The two-tiered wooden structure was renovated in the 1960s, when
it was declared South Korea's top national treasure. The next day
police arrested a man, who admitted to the arson. Chae Jong-ki (69) was
later convicted of violating the Cultural Properties Protection Law and
sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/08)(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A16)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Feb 12, South Korea held its
first-ever trial by jury as part of reform measures aimed at increasing
confidence in the judicial system. A nine-member jury in Daegu heard
the case of a man (27) accused of assaulting a woman (70) while trying
to burglarize her house. By South Korean law, the findings of jury are
nonbinding, with the final verdict still resting in the hands of a
judge, as in the past. Juries will be used at the request of defendants
in some criminal cases.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 17, In South Korea a
special prosecutor's team questioned President-elect Lee Myung-bak over
allegations of financial fraud a week ahead of his inauguration.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 21, In South Korea a
special prosecutor cleared Pres.-elect Lee Myung-bak of financial fraud
allegations.
(SFC, 2/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 25, In South Korea former
businessman Lee Myung-Bak took office as president, promising greater
prosperity both for his own nation and for impoverished North Korea if
it scraps its nuclear drive.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Mar 7, Australian officials
said police have rescued 10 South Korean women who were forced to work
in a Sydney brothel by a sex slavery syndicate that lured them to
Australia with promises of legitimate jobs.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 23, South Korea's Hyundai
Motor said it would begin mass producing hybrid cars next year amid
growing demand for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 24, South Korea's
president asked North Korea to consider sending home prisoners of war
and captured civilians in return for receiving humanitarian aid from
Seoul.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials
held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of
mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo
milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 27, North Korea expelled
all 11 South Korean officials from a joint industrial estate just north
of the border in retaliation for Seoul's new tougher line towards the
communist state.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Apr 4, Lee Kun-Hee (66), the
head of South Korea's biggest business group Samsung, appeared for
questioning as part of a high-profile probe into an alleged
multi-million dollar bribery slush fund.
(AFP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, A South Korean
official said quarantine workers have destroyed more than 100,000
chickens following the first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in
the country in more than a year.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 8, A Russian capsule
carrying South Korea's first astronaut and two cosmonauts blasted off
from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, en route to the
international space station.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 9, The conservative party
of South Korea's new president won an overall majority in parliamentary
elections, according to TV exit polls, giving him the power to push
through sweeping economic reforms. The GNP won 153 seats in the
299-member legislature.
(AP, 4/9/08)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.50)
2008 Apr 13, South Korea's
government confirmed a fourth outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in
the country's southwest, as the tally of birds slaughtered to control
the spread of the disease rose to 1.3 million.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 16, South Korea
dispatched 200 soldiers to chicken farms to slaughter poultry infected
with bird flu, as the government confirmed another outbreak of the
disease.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 17,
In South Korea special prosecutors indicted Chairman Lee Kun-hee,
the chairman of Samsung Group, on charges of tax evasion and breach of
trust, ending a probe that shook South Korea's biggest conglomerate for
months. A South Korean court sentenced Kim Kyung-jun, a former business
partner of President Lee Myung-bak, to 10 years in prison for stock
manipulation, embezzlement and forgery.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18,
President George W. Bush and South Korea's leader Lee Myung-bak
held talks on pushing ahead with a huge free trade deal and fortifying
their half-century security alliance. Bush welcomed Lee at Camp David
for the two-day talks, that are to include their economic and defense
teams. Just hours before the Bush-Lee talks, South Korea announced it
had agreed to give US beef greater access to its market.
(AFP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19, In northern
Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi
So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer
Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 21, In Japan PM Yasuo
Fukuda met with South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak and both declared a
new era of closer cooperation.
(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 22,
In South Korea Chairman Lee Kun-hee (66), head of Samsung Group,
resigned. On April 17 he was indicted on charges of tax evasion and
breach of trust.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.82)
2008 Apr 27, A North Korean
defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the Olympic torch relay
through Seoul, while thousands of police guarded the flame from
protesters blasting China's treatment of North Korean refugees. A North
Korean soldier defected to South Korea for the first time in a decade
across the heavily fortified border dividing the countries.
(AP, 4/27/08)(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 May 4, In South Korea at
least eight were people killed when they were swept away by high waves
that hit the port of Boryeong Namdo on the west coast.
(Reuters, 5/4/08)
2008 May 9, A South Korean aid
group said North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural
areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 12, South Korean
officials said they have killed all poultry in Seoul, to curb the
spread of bird flu following a new outbreak of the disease in the city.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 26, South Korea and a
group of governments from the Middle East and Africa agreed to launch a
cooperative organization aimed at enhancing political, cultural and
economic ties. The Korea-Arab Society will group South Korea with
governments, corporations and organizations from 22 countries and
authorities in the Arab world.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 29, South Korea took the
final step to resume full imports of beef from the US, which it banned
in 2003 over fears of mad cow disease.
(WSJ, 5/30/08, p.A9)
2008 May 31, Tens of thousands of
South Koreans rallied against a government decision to import US beef
in the largest demonstration in a month of almost daily protests.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May, A South Korean abductee
escaped from North Korea after more than 30 years and was under Seoul’s
protection in China. Yoon Jong-soo, 65, ended up in the North when his
fishing boat and 32 other crew members were seized off South Korea's
east coast in 1975.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080609/ap_on_re_as/koreas_abductee_escape)
2008 Jun 2, The South Korean
government said it was delaying the planned resumption of US beef
imports, after a request from the ruling party and large weekend street
protests.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 5, South Korea's
antitrust regulator said it will order Intel Corp. to pay 26 billion
won ($25.4 million) for violating fair trade rules.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 10, In South Korea some
700,000 protesters gathered for a candlelit demonstration against the
government’s decision to resume beef imports from the US.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.60)
2008 Jun 11, South Korea's
president said that his government will make a fresh start, hours after
thousands of people had gathered in Seoul in the largest demonstration
yet against the planned resumption of US beef imports.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 14, Striking truck
drivers in South Korea threatened to block the country's largest port
to protest surging fuel prices.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 19, In South Korea about
6,500 truck drivers ended their strike after transportation companies
agreed to increase fees for hauling freight, but another 6,500 remained
off the job.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, South Korea's
embattled President Lee Myung-Bak Friday replaced seven top aides to
give his government a fresh start after weeks of mass protests against
a US beef import deal.
(AFP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 21, South Korea said it
will resume imports of US beef after American and South Korean
suppliers agreed to block meat from older cattle, aiming to soothe
health concerns that sparked weeks of demonstrations against new
President Lee Myung-bak. Over 10,000 people rallied in central Seoul to
protest the US beef imports.
(AP, 6/22/08)(SSFC, 6/22/08, p.A11)
2008 Jun 24, New Zealand police
charged two men in the slaying of Jae Hyeon Kim (25), a South Korean
backpacker, who disappeared five years ago during a working holiday in
New Zealand. The exact date of Kim's death remained unclear, but police
said it was likely to have been between Sep. 29 and Oct. 22, 2003.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 29, In South Korea
protesters fought riot police at a rally opposing the resumption of
American beef imports, hours after the chief US diplomat vouched for
the health of US cattle. Police refused to allow more candlelight
protests after clashes left over 200 people injured.
(AP, 6/29/08)(WSJ, 6/30/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 2, In South Korea tens of
thousands of auto workers went on strike to oppose the government's
lifting of a ban on US beef imports.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 3, South Korea's
president called for an end to a long-running dispute over American
beef imports, saying it was time for the nation to concentrate instead
on overcoming its economic difficulties.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 5, South Korean police
said about 50,000 people protested in Seoul against a US beef import
deal and the policies of the new president, whose government has faced
weeks of street rallies.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 6, South Korea said it
was implementing a multi-stage contingency plan aimed at reducing
energy consumption before the skyrocketing oil prices push Asia's
fourth-largest economy into a full-fledged crisis.
(Reuters, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 11, A North Korean
soldier fatally shot a South Korean woman tourist (53) at a mountain
resort in the communist North, prompting the South to suspend the
high-profile tour program. Park Wang-ja had strayed a half-mile
into a fenced off military area and was shot twice from behind.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 14, South Korea said it
will recall its ambassador from Japan over a rekindled debate about
disputed islands between the countries, as the new Seoul government
seeks to lift its sagging popularity at home with an appeal to
nationalism.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 15, In South Korea Won
Jeong-hwa (34) was arrested and later confessed that she was a spy
trained and commissioned by North Korea's intelligence agency. On Oct
15 she was sentenced to five years in prison for spying.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, In South Korea former
Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee saw the suspension of his prison sentence
in a tax-evasion conviction, a move that confirmed South Koreans' view
that tycoons are immune from jail.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 26, South Korea’s
government said days of torrential rains have led to the deaths of
seven people and left six others missing.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 31, South Korea's
Constitutional Court overturned a ban on doctors telling parents the
gender of unborn babies, saying the country has grown out of a
preference for sons and that the restriction violates parents' right to
know.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 5, President Bush got a
mixed reception in South Korea at the start of his three-nation Asian
trip. About 30,000 people gathered in front of Seoul City Hall for an
afternoon Christian prayer service supporting Bush's trip. As evening
approached police fired water cannons at an estimated 20,000 anti-Bush
protesters gathered nearby.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 11, In China the US
remained third in the medals table at the end of the third day of
Olympic competition with three gold medals behind hosts China with nine
after the completion of 34 events, and South Korea with four. Abhinav
Bindra became the first Indian to ever win a solo gold medal at the
Olympic Games after winning the men's 10m air rifle title.
(AP,
8/11/08)(www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/14/olympicgames.shooting)
2008 Aug 12, South Korea announced
sweeping pardons for some of the country’s most powerful businessmen,
including Lee Myung-bak, the head of leading carmaker Hyundai Motor,
saying they were needed to help revive a troubled economy. 341,863
others were also pardoned as South Korea celebrated liberation from
Japanese colonialism.
(Econ, 8/16/08,
p.46)(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/08/12/business/fi-skpardons12)
2008 Sep 7, South Korean police
arrested four people over the theft of data on 11 million customers of
a local oil refiner in what is being called the country's largest-ever
data leak.
(AFP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 10, Pirates hijacked a
South Korean bulk carrier with 22 crew off Somalia's coast but were
thwarted in a separate attempt to seize a Greek ship. The crew and
vessel were released on Oct 16 with no comment on ransom.
(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Sep 19, South Korea said it
will completely withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq by December,
ending five years of military deployment.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 27, The population of
Seoul, South Korea, was reported to be about 23 million.
(Econ, 9/27/08, SR p.3)
2008 Sep 29, South Korea said its
state run Korea Gas Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding with
Russia’s Gazprom to import gas from Russia for 30 years starting in
2015 as part of a $102 billion bilateral gas and chemical deal.
(WSJ, 9/30/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 2, Choi Jin-sil (39), one
of South Korea's most popular actresses, was found dead in an apparent
suicide after suffering from post-divorce depression and harassment by
online rumors about her allegedly irregular financial dealings.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 9, The central banks of
Taiwan and South Korea cut interest rates as Japan and others pumped
more cash into the financial markets.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 16, Somali pirates
released 22 sailors they kidnapped on Sep 10, after the South Korean
ship owner paid a ransom. Koo Ja-Woo, an executive director of J and J
Trust, which owns the ship, said his company paid an unspecified sum to
the pirates through a foreign middleman with experience in dealing with
the seizure of ships.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 19, South Korea announced
a $130 billion economic rescue package, with $100 billion of this in
the form of guarantees for foreign currency debts.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.52)
2008 Oct 20, A financially
strapped South Korean man, identified as Jeong, went on an arson and
stabbing rampage in Seoul, leaving six people dead, including 3
Chinese, and seven others wounded.
(AP, 10/20/08)(AFP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 27, South Korea lowered
its key interest rate from 5% to 4.25%.
(WSJ, 10/25/08, p.A11)
2008 Oct 28, South Korean
officials said a North Korean soldier has defected for the 2nd time in
a decade.
(WSJ, 10/29/08,
p.A1)(www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/asia/korea.php)
2008 Oct 29, South Korea reported
that Kim Jong Il has suffered a serious setback in his recovery from a
stroke.
(WSJ, 10/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 30, In South Korea a
court ruled that a law that allows only visually impaired people to
become licensed masseurs does not violate the constitution, in a
victory for the blind. South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld a ban
on adultery, rejecting complaints that the 55-year-old law is outdated
and constitutes an invasion of privacy.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 7, South Korea reduced
its key interest rate by .25%, its 3rd cut in 4 weeks.
(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 12, North Korea's
powerful military announced it will shut the country's border with the
South on Dec. 1, a marked escalation of threats against Seoul's new
conservative government at a time of heightened tension on the
peninsula.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, LCD makers LG Display
of South Korea, Sharp of Japan, and Chunghwa Picture tubes of Taiwan
pleaded guilty to US charges of price fixing and will pay fines
totaling $585 million.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 20, South Korean
activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea,
ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and threats
from the North to sever relations if it continues.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 24, North Korea detailed
plans to radically curtail ties with South Korea, announcing the end of
daily cross-border train service and tours of a historic city in
response to what it called Seoul's "confrontational" policy.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 27, South Korea's
supermarket chains resumed selling US beef, nearly five months after
the government lifted an import ban imposed over fears of mad cow
disease.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Dec 11, South Korea’s central
bank cut its main interest rate by a percentage point to 3%, its 4th
and largest cut in two months.
(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 13, Japan, China and
South Korea moved to ward off the effects of the global financial
crunch at a trilateral summit in Japan, while Tokyo and Seoul
criticized North Korea for stalling denuclearization talks.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 17, A South Korean court
found one of the country's most famous actresses guilty of adultery,
months after she tried but failed to have a law that makes extramarital
affairs a crime ruled unconstitutional. Ok So-ri was handed a suspended
jail term.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 19, South Korea Friday
completed its troop pullout from Iraq, ending a four-year mission to
help reconstruct the war-torn nation.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 29, Citigroup Inc said it
is injecting $800 million of new capital into its South Korean banking
arm, joining other banks in efforts to shore up their financial bases.
(Reuters, 12/29/08)
2009 Jan 6, South Korea said it
will invest 50 trillion won ($38.1 billion) over the next four years on
environmental projects in a "Green New Deal" to spur slumping economic
growth and create nearly a million jobs. Opposition lawmakers ended
their violent, 12-day siege of the parliament after successfully
delaying a key vote on a US free trade deal and other legislation.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 10, South Korean
officials arrested Park Dae-sung (31), a blogger writing under the
pseudonym Minerva. They charged that his postings had led to a plunge
in the value of the won, forcing the government to intervene in
trading. In April 20 Park Dae-sung was cleared of spreading false
information.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A11)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.45)(AP,
4/20/09)
2009 Jan 11, South Korea’s Hyundai
Genesis was named North American Car of the Year and the Ford F-150 as
the 2009 North American Truck of the Year. The awards were first given
in 1994. This was the first time a Korean automaker has won.
(Econ, 3/7/09,
p.71)(www.northamericancaroftheyear.org/)
2009 Jan 14, South Korea's Chosun
Ilbo newspaper said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has reportedly
ordered a crackdown on street markets in an apparent move to reassert
control over the economy amid an influx of foreign goods into the
isolated country.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 16, In South Korea Yonhap
news agency said Busan District Court handed a man named Lim (42) a
suspended 30-month sentence for raping his wife (25) at knifepoint. It
was the first time a man in traditionally male-dominated South Korea
has been convicted of marital rape. Lim was found dead of apparent
suicide on Jan 20.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, South Korean police
commandos stormed a vacant office building occupied by displaced
tenants in central Seoul, sparking a clash and a blaze that killed six
people and injured 23.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 24, In South Korea Kang
Ho-sun (38) was arrested at his workplace in Ansan, a city about 20
miles (30 kilometers) south of Seoul, in connection with the killing of
a student who disappeared last month. Her body was found in a nearby
town the next day. Kang later confessed to kidnapping and killing the
student and then admitted to slaying six other women between December
2006 and December 2008.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 27, South Korea’s central
bank announced that a woman will appear on its banknotes for the first
time, with the issuance of a new 50,000-won ($36) bill.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 29, A South Korean
biotech company claimed to have cloned dogs using a stem cell
technology for the first time in the world.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, North Korea announced
that it is scrapping agreements with South Korea on easing military
tensions, accusing Seoul of pushing relations to the brink of war.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 4, South Korea
implemented its Capital Markets Consolidation Plan (CMCA).
(www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7150292&action=article)
2009 Feb 9, South Korean
prosecutors cleared police of any wrongdoing over a commando raid last
month that left six people dead in a clash with displaced tenants in
central Seoul.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 16, Cardinal Stephen Kim
Sou-hwan (86), South Korea's first cardinal, died. He was a tireless
advocate for democracy and stood up to a string of military dictators.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Spain Samsung of
South Korea unveiled the world's first solar-powered mobile phone at an
industry show where the sector is showcasing the new technology it
hopes will drive demand through the economic crisis.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 21, A South Korean
housewife broke a world record in marathon singing after crooning for
more than 76 hours without stopping at a Seoul karaoke bar.
(AFP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 23, South Korea's Defense
Ministry said North Korea recently deployed a new type of medium-range
ballistic missile capable of reaching northern Australia and the US
territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, South Korea signed a
$3.55 billion deal with Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged country in
return for oil and gas. The deal was inked by South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 5, Australia and South
Korea agreed during a summit between PM Kevin Rudd and President Lee
Myung-bak to deepen security ties and launch formal talks on a free
trade agreement.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, Indonesia and South
Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on a range of issues including
defense, the global financial crisis and alternative sources of energy.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 9, The US and South Korea
began annual war games prompting North Korea to call its military into
full combat readiness.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships
collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South
Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 15, In Yemen a bomb
killed four South Korean tourists and their Yemeni guide, the latest
attack targeting foreigners visiting this poor Arab country that has
both famed historic sites and a strong al-Qaida presence.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 17, North Korea fully
reopened its border to South Koreans commuting to jobs at factories in
a northern economic zone after four days of restrictions.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 18, In Yemen a suicide
bomber struck a convoy carrying South Korean officials sent to Yemen to
investigate a bombing earlier in the week that killed four South Korean
tourists. No one was hurt.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 20, North Korea closed
its southern border for the third time in recent days, even as it told
Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line severed last
week.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Apr 7, In South Korea former
Pres. Roh Moo-hyun announced that his wife had received money from Park
Yeon-cha, chairman of Taekwang Industrial Co., a shoe manufacturer,
several hours following the arrest of Chung Sangmoon, a former aide who
had accepted the money for the president’s wife.
for the president’s wife.
(WSJ, 4/8/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 21, North and South Korea
held their first formal talks for more than a year but discussions
ended without agreement after just 22 minutes.
(AFP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, A South Korean court
convicted and handed down a death sentence to a masseur charged with
killing 10 people, including his wife and mother-in-law. Kang Ho-sun
(38) was indicted in February in the slayings of eight office workers,
karaoke bar employees and university students after abducting them
between September 2006 and December 2008. Kang was also accused of
burning to death his wife and mother-in-law in 2005 in an attempt to
win insurance money.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 28, South Korean
scientists said they have engineered four beagles that glow red using
cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, A South Korean
presidential advisory committee announced that South Korea will lift a
three-year ban on human stem cell research.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 May 4, South Korean snipers
hovering in a helicopter chased away pirates pursuing a North Korean
freighter, while a Russian warship freed eight Iranian citizens held
hostage for more than three months.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 4, South Korean news
reported that North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack
into US and South Korean military networks to gather confidential
information and disrupt service.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 5, A South Korean
official said 3 South Korean army personnel have been convicted of
accepting or seeking bribes while serving as part of a US-led alliance
aimed at rebuilding Iraq. A captain identified by his surname Park, was
sentenced last month by a South Korean military court to three years in
prison for taking $25,000 and a digital camera worth $800 from a local
firm involved in construction projects in the northern city of Irbil in
return for administrative favors. A master sergeant and a major
received suspended jail terms for demanding bribes from other Iraqi
firms. The captain and the two others were arrested in South Korea in
December following a joint US-South Korean investigation.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 13, South Korean
Destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great and the US guided missile cruiser
Gettysburg dispatched helicopters to aid Egypt’s Motor Vessel Amira
after it came under attack. 17 suspected pirates wee apprehended
following the attack in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, North Korea said it
has scrapped all wage and rent agreements with South Korea at a joint
industrial estate and told some 100 South Korean companies to leave if
they cannot accept it.
(AFP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 18, It was reported that
South Korea's top technology university has developed a plan to power
electric cars through recharging strips embedded in roadways that use a
technology to transfer energy found in some electric toothbrushes.
(Reuters, 5/18/09)
2009 May 21, South Korea’s Supreme
Court said that doctors treating a comatose woman (76) must remove her
from life support as her family requested, the first time it has ruled
in favor of a patient's right to die.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 23, Former South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun (62) jumped to his death while hiking in the
mountains behind his rural home. His hard-won reputation as a
corruption fighter was tarnished by bribery allegations that drew in
his family and closest associates.
(AP, 5/23/09)(Econ, 5/30/09, p.88)
2009 May 27, North Korea renounced
its 1953 truce with the allied forces and threatened to strike any
ships trying to intercept its vessels. Facing international censure for
this week's nuclear test, it threatened to attack the South after it
joined a US-led plan to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment
for weapons of mass destruction.
(Reuters, 5/27/09)
2009 May 28, South Korean and US
troops raised their alert to the highest level since 2006 after North
Korea renounced its truce with the allied forces and threatened to
strike any ships trying to intercept its vessels.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jun 2, Two major South Korean
newspapers said that North Korea's military, party and government
officials were informed that Kim Jong Un (26), the youngest of three,
is in line to take the world's first communist dynasty into a third
generation.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 11, North Korea demanded
a 3,000 percent hike in rent from South Korea for the site of a joint
industrial park at the center of a dispute roiling their relations. It
also sought a more than fourfold increase in wages for North Korean
workers employed by South Korean companies at the park. More than 100
South Korean companies have factories in the park, employing some
40,000 North Koreans. They are paid about $70 a month on average.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 12, A South Korean
newspaper reported that the youngest son of North Korea's authoritarian
leader has been given the title of "Brilliant Comrade," a sign the
communist regime is preparing to name him as successor to the ailing
Kim Jong Il.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 19, South Korea rejected
North Korea's demand for a massive increase in wages and rent at a
joint industrial park struggling to stay afloat, leaving the fate of
more than 100 companies and 40,000 workers there hanging in balance.
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 4, Attacks began on more
than two dozen Internet sites in the United States and South Korea and
some were disabled by hackers. South Korea's spy agency later said the
attacks were possibly linked to North Korea. Some of the affected US
government Web sites, such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade
Commission and Secret Service, were still reporting problems days after
it started during the July 4 holiday.
(Reuters, 7/8/09)(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 6, The office of South
Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak said he will donate about 33.1 billion won
($26 million), almost all of his personal fortune, to establish a new
youth scholarship program.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 9, South Korean Web sites
were attacked again after a wave of Web site outages in the US and
South Korea that several officials suspect North Korea was behind.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 10, South Korea’s spy
agency told lawmakers that a research institute affiliated with the
North's Ministry of People's Armed Forces received an order on June 7
to "destroy the South Korean puppet communications networks in an
instant." The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North has between
500-1,000 hacking specialists.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 13, South Korea reported
that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (67) has life-threatening
pancreatic cancer, days after fresh images of him looking gaunt spurred
speculation that his health was worsening following a reported stroke
last year.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, South Korean police
said hackers extracted files from computers they contaminated with the
virus that triggered cyberattacks last week in the United States and
South Korea, a sign that they tried to steal information from the
victims. North Korea has supposedly trained an elite group of hackers
at Mirim College, its military school.
(AP, 7/14/09)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.62)
2009 Aug 3, In South Korea
thousands of riot police strengthened their siege of a troubled South
Korean auto firm, spraying liquid tear gas from a helicopter, after
talks to end a prolonged occupation by strikers collapsed.
(AFP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 5, In South Korea
helicopter-borne police commandos fought militant strikers at the
Ssangyong Motor Co.’s Pyeongtaek factory, seizing all but one key
building.
(SFC, 8/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 6, In South Korea
unionists who occupied a car plant in protest at mass layoffs agreed to
end a 77-day sit-in which halted production and sparked violent clashes
with police.
(AFP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 13, North Korea freed Yu
Seong-Jin (44), a South Korean worker it had detained since March,
raising hopes of better cross-border relations after 18 months of
bitter hostility from the communist state.
(AFP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 15, South Korea's
president renewed his offer of aid for impoverished North Korea if it
abandons its nuclear weapons and called for talks on the reduction of
conventional weapons along their heavily fortified border.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 16, North Korean leader
Kim Jong Il held talks with Hyun Jeong-eun, the head of South Korea's
Hyundai Group, in a rare meeting that could warm prospects for a
resumption of stalled cross-border projects.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 16, Y.E. Yang (37) of
South Korea won the PGA Championship at Chaska, Minnesota, with a
2-under par 70 beating Tiger Woods who shot a 5 over par 75.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, North Korea said it
would restart tours to a scenic mountain resort and allow reunions for
families separated since the Korean War, a surprise move that could
help ease months of tensions with South Korea over Pyongyang's missile
and nuclear tests.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 18, Former South Korean
Pres. Kim Dae-jung (85) died. He spent years as a dissident under a
military dictatorship and later won the Nobel Peace Prize for seeking
reconciliation with communist North Korea.
(AP, 8/18/09)
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End of file.