Timeline Korea: South Korea (A) thru 2015
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3600 BC In 2012 South Korean archaeologist Cho Mi-soon said that the nation’s archeological agency has found the remains of a farming field from the Neolithic period on South Korea's east coast and that the site may date to about this time.
(AP, 6/27/12)
2333 BC 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)
400 BC Korean farmers about this time brought rice to Japan.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.66)
400 BC- 250 AD 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)
171BC There was a major wave of migration to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. The migration of other peoples from mainland Asia around this time brought metal tools, rice and new farming techniques. Computer modeling in 2011 showed that the migration also had significant impact on linguistic development.
(AP, 5/5/11)
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)
49AD 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)
900-1000 The Korean rice wine Makgeolli, once known as "farmer drink", dates back at least this time. Its popularity waned in the early 1960s when the government restricted the use of rice for making alcohol in order to combat rice shortages. In 2012 South Korea's Baesangmyun Brewery announced that a brewery in Chicago will open to produce the drink.
(AFP, 2/5/12)
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)
946 Mount Paektu, a volcano straddling the border between North Korea and China, erupted with apocalyptic fire and fury in what scientists later considered one of the five largest volcanic events in human history. It ejected enough material to bury Greater London to a depth of 60 meters (200 feet), and caused temporary climate change in the region.
(AFP, 9/19/19)
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)
1241 Dec, The Great Khan Ogedei died after completing the Mongol conquest of China and Korea. In April the Mongols routed the armies of Poles, Germans, and Hungarians, at Liegnitz and Mohi, within easy distance of Vienna. Only the death of Ogedei stopped their advance into Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/yxd5o9vj)(V.D.-H.K.p.169)
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 (Joseon 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)(AP, 4/14/11)
1392-1910 The Choson Dynasty ruled over Korea. [the article is about pojagi, Korean wrapping cloth]
(Hem., Oct. '95, p.72)(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A9)
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)
1425 Korean King Sejong: "I am neither virtuous, nor skillful at governing. There will definitely be times when I do not act upon the heavens' wishes. So look hard for my flaws and make me answer to their reprimands."
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.34)
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 known as hangul, created under the aegis of King Sejong, was first published. This day was later made a national holiday.
(AP, 10/9/07)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.40)
1450 Apr 8, Korean King Sejong (b.1397), the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty (1418-1450), died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_the_Great)
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)
1570 Yi Hwang (b.1501) Korean philosopher and writer, died. He was one of the two most prominent Korean Confucian scholars of the Joseon Dynasty. He established the Yeongnam School and set up the Dosan Seowon, a private Confucian academy. His image later graced South Korea's 1,000-won bill.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Hwang)(Econ., 1/2/21, p.27)
1584 Yulgok (b.1536), a Korean Confucian scholar, died. South Korea later celebrated his memory on a 5,000-won note. His mother appeared on a 50,000-won note.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.9)
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 May 23, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an army to invade Korea after Korea refused to help him invade China. The initial Imjin invasion was followed by a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula after a military stalemate in Korea's southern coastal provinces.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(http://tinyurl.com/gw7u8wm)
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)
1597 Oct 26, Korea’s Admiral Yi Sun-shin (Yi Sun sin), with a fleet of 13 ships, beat back the Japanese Navy, with a fleet of hundreds of ships, at the Battle of Myeongnyang. In 2014 the South Korean film “Roaring Currents," a depiction of the battle, was released and became the country’s most popular film of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
1676 Jeong Seon (d.1759), Korean landscape painter, was born.
(www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/10/148_51861.html)
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. Hyegyōnggung Hong Ssi later authored her memoir “Hanjungnok."
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.79)(www.financial-book-review.com)
1791-1888 In Korea 124 Catholics were executed during this period under the Joseon Dynasty, which tried to shut off the Korean Peninsula off from Western influence. They were canonized as saints in 1984 during a visit by Pope John Paul II.
(Econ, 7/26/14, p.A7)
1808 Yi Eung-nok, Korean court painter, was born.
(SFC, 3/11/03, p.D1)
1846 In Korea Kim Tae-gon (25), the country’s first Catholic priest, was beheaded for attempting to help foreign missionaries enter the country. He was canonized in 1984.
(SFC, 8/13/14, p.A7)
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)
1866 French troops took away hundreds of Korean manuscripts and set fire to 5,000 more when they raided a royal library on an island off Korea's west coast. In 2011 the first batch of the looted Korean royal books were returned home.
(AP, 4/14/11)
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)
1898 Isabella Bird Bishop (1831-1904), English explorer, writer, and natural historian, published her 2-volume work “Korea and Her Neighbors."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird)(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.10)
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 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
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 nationalist Chang Ahn Gun (aka Ahn Jung-geun).
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.48)
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. 33 Koreans gathered in a local restaurant to read a declaration of independence that ignited a series of demonstrations against Japanese occupation. The March 1st movement led millions of Koreans to take to the streets to protest against Japanese rule. Thousands were killed and many ended up in Keijo’s Seodaemun prison.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.M3)(Econ, 8/15/15, p.34)
1923 Sep, In Japan an orgy of opportunistic anti-Korean slaughter followed the Sep 1 Great Kanto earthquake.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.59)
1925 Korea’s first communist party was founded.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.42)
1937 Korean guerrillas allegedly led by Kim Il Sung clashed with Japanese colonizer in the Battle of Bocheonbo.
(WSJ, 1/14/03, p.A10)
1938 Samsung began as provincial vegetable and dried-fish shop. By 2011 it had swelled into a network of 83 companies accounting for 13% of South Korea’s exports. In 2020 Geoffrey Cain authored "Samsung Rising."
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.14)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.56)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands, encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII. After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some 4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including 17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile Of Hell."
(AP, 11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07, p.72)
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)
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)
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 South Korea adopted legislation to punish anyone praising North Korea with up to seven years in prison.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.39)
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)
1948 South Korean Shin Kyuk-Ho founded Lotte Co. Ltd. in Tokyo. He expanded Lotte to his home country with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3, 1967 and built the company into a sprawling giant that by 2017 had dozens of units focused on food, retail and hotels in South Korea and Japan.
(AFP, 12/22/17)
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. Millions died in the three-year conflict, with Seoul's defence ministry putting military fatalities at 520,000 North Koreans, 137,000 Southern troops and 37,000 Americans. 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)(AFP, 6/24/20)
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 South Korean 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. In 2009 a government commission said South Korean soldiers and police executed nearly 5,000 citizens during the early months of the 1950-53 Korean War, fearing they could collaborate with invading North Korean troops.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 6/5/00, p.A32)(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 11/26/09)
1950 Jul 11, In South Korea twin US orphans, John and George Krebs of Illinois, were among those killed during a battle in Chochiwon. John was initially reported missing. In 2019 John Krebs was buried next to his brother in Illinois after his remains were identified in December 2018.
(AP, 5/18/19)
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 1, USSR Communist forces introduced the MiG-15 to the Korean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah)
1950 Nov 8, The first air-to-air combat between fighter jets took place during an attack on the Sinuiju bridges near the mouth of the Yalu River, when a US Air Force F-80C belonging to the 16th Fighter Squadron encountered a MiG-15.
(http://tinyurl.com/y5tnkhgb)(The National Interest, 8/4/19)
1950 Nov 9, The first jet-Vs-jet victory in history was scored by Lt. Cdr. William T. Amen, the commanding officer of VF-111 Sundowners in another attack against the Sinuiju bridges, this time conducted by the US Navy aircraft launched from the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) aircraft carrier. Amen downed a MiG-15 flown by Capt. Mikhail Grachev.
(http://tinyurl.com/y5tnkhgb)(The National Interest, 8/4/19)
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. Over the next two weeks Mao Zedong's peasant army drove an army of 350,000 American soldiers and marines and their Korean allies the length of North Korea to hasty evacuation by land and sea.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(Econ., 12/12/20, p.34)
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, During the Korean War private first-class Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (1929-2016) held off an enemy regiment single-handedly and safeguarded his comrades from a live grenade during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. In 1952 Pres. Harry S. Truman awarded him a Medal of Honor.
(SSFC, 4/17/16, p.C2)
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, In Korea 1st Lt. Ralph Puckett helped the 8th US Army Ranger Company secure Hill 205 near Unsan against on overwhelming Chinese attack. Puckett drew fire so that Rangers could find and destroy enemy positions. Puckett was wounded in the operation. In 2021 he received the Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 5/22/21, p.A5)
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 killed 2.5 million people, with over 2 million of them civilians. 1.2 million soldiers were killed including 34,000 Americans. No peace treaty was ever signed. About 1.7 million Americans were involved and there was an estimated 3 mil casualties including 36,914 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."
(https://tinyurl.com/yxsk28xa)(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)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.40)
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 22, US Navy pilot Kenneth Schechter (d.2013) was among a group of pilots ordered to bomb North Korean rail and truck lines. Schechter’s plane was hit and he was blinded, but managed to make a landing guided by group leader Lt. Howard Thayer.
(SFC, 12/25/13, p.D2)
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 Jan 5, In South Korea the Changgyeong ferry sank as it was cruising from Yeosu to Busan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_Korean_ferry_disasters)
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 Apr 27, US General Mark W. Clark issued Operation Moolah to coincide with Operation Little Switch, an exchange of sick and wounded POWs between the Communist and UN forces in North and South Korea. The US set up Operation Moolah to award $100,000 to the first pilot to defect in a Russian made MiG.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah)(Econ, 5/16/15, p.79)
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 No Kum Sok defected and landed his aircraft at Kimpo airfield outside Seoul. He collected a reward while denying any knowledge of a bounty. American scientists were able to examine the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, powered by a jet engine superior to those then used in American fighter planes. It first saw combat in Korea during November 1950, where its performance shifted the balance of air power to Russian-backed North Korea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Kum-sok)(HNPD, 9/28/98)
1953 South Korea passed a law against abortion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.32)
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)
1956 South Korea opened its first stock exchange.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.76)
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 In South Korea Cho Yong-gi founded Yoido Full Gospel Church. By 2011 it ranked as the world’s largest Christian congregation with over one million members.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.51)
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)
1959 Lucky Goldstar of South Korea, later known as LG Electronics, produced the country’s first radio.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.56)
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)
1960 South Korea’s population was about 25 million.
(Econ, 7/17/10, SR p.10)
1960-2009 South Korea’s fertility rate fell during this period form 6 children per woman to 1.15.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.78)
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)
1961 The per capita GDP of South Korea was $91.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.44)
1962 Mar 16, South Korea’s Supreme Council passed the Political Activities Purification Law, which essentially barred political participation by any civilians associated with the two previous governments. In protest, the SCNR's puppet president resigned, and Park Chung Hee named himself acting president.
(http://tinyurl.com/hn6kdc8)
1963 Oct 15, In South Korea Park Chung-hee was elected president as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party. He narrowly defeated former President Yun, the candidate of the Civil Rule Party, by just over 156,000 votes—a margin of 1.5 percent.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee)
1964-1973 South Korea deployed more than 300,000 military personnel to help the US effort in South Vietnam against the communists.
(AP, 2/19/19)
1965 Jul 19, Syngman Rhee (b.1875), the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (1948-60), died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee)
1965 The government of Japan signed a peace treaty with South Korea that covered reparation claims of South Korean women used as sex slaves. Japan paid $500 million to South Korea in compensation for wartime excesses and colonial era claims.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.48)
1965 South Korea banned the use of Chinese hair in its wig industry. By the late 1960s wigs made up roughly 10 percent of the country’s total exports by revenue.
(Econ 7/29/17, p.33)
1965 Japan’s recognition of South Korea enabled Koreans in Japan to become South Korean. Koreans who did not became North Korean by default and went to Japan’s North Korean schools.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.38)
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)
1967 Jan 19, North Korean artillery batteries fired on and sank ROKN PCE-56 off the north Korean east coast killing 39 South Korean sailors.
(AP, 3/27/10)(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/dmz-list.htm)
1967 Dec 29, Jirisan became South Korea’s first and largest national park. It was home to the highest peak on the South Korean mainland. By 2020 South Korea's 22 national parks welcomed around 45 million visitors every year.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_parks_of_South_Korea)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.65)
1967 Shin Kyuk-ho took his Lotte enterprise home to South Korea from Japan, as dictator Park Chung-hee offered tax breaks and perks. He had founded Lotte in post-war Japan as a chewing gum business. In 2015 it was South Korea’s fifth largest chaebol, but controlling companies remained in Japan.
(Econ, 8/15/15, p.58)
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 Park Tae-joon (1927-2011) founded POSCO 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)(AP, 12/13/11)
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)
1969 South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was formed and began making transistor radios. By 2011 it had evolved into the world’s leading manufacturer of televisions and much else.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.75)
1970 Apr, North Korea intercepted a South Korean fishing trawler. Most of the crew were later repatriated but Lee Jae-geun, owner of the trawler, was held for three decades before he escaped home.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.3)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church_of_the_United_States)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A12)
1971 South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee gave nearly every village 335 bags of cement. After a year those thought successful were given more cement plus steel rods in return for pooling savings into local banks. This was later said to have been the beginning of the saemaul (new village) movement that modernized the countryside.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.44)
1971-1975 In South Korea Kim Jong-pil, the founder of South Korea's spy agency, served as prime minister under dictator boss Park Chung-hee.
(AP, 6/23/18)
1972 Jul 4, Lee Hu-rak (1924-2009), South Korean President Park Chung-hee’s top intelligence officer, helped broker a joint statement in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula. The July 4 joint communique was hailed as the first major accord between the Koreas on unification since the Korean War ended with a fragile truce in 1953.
(AP, 10/31/09)
1972 Dec 28, A North Korean navy ship seized 25 South Korean fishermen aboard two boats. In 2013 Jeon Wook-Pyo, one of the 25, escaped and made it back to South Korea.
(AFP, 9/13/13)
1972 Hyundai began work on a shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. It grew to become the largest in the world.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.3)
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 by a North Korean sympathizer. Park’s daughter took over as 1st lady.
(AP, 8/15/97)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.44)(Econ, 12/17/16, p.38)
1974 A South Korean ship sank off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and coast guard personnel.
(AP, 3/27/10)
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)
1978 The US military buried an estimated 250 drums of Agent Orange herbicide and other chemicals at the Camp Carroll base in South Korea. In 2011 the US military acknowledged the burial.
(AP, 6/2/11)
1979 Aug, In South Korea nearly 200 women at a bankrupt wig factory were fired and then beaten by police for refusing to leave. Kim Young-sam (1927-2015) sheltered the women in the headquarters of his opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
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 against Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized power in a coup. The region was the home of opposition leader Kim Dae-jung.
(AP, 5/18/00)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.C10)(Econ 5/6/17, p.35)
1980 May 27, South Korean paratroopers 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)
1980 South Korea outlawed private, out-of-school tutoring driving the industry underground. In 2000 the ban was declared unbconstitutional.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.12)
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 May 18, The Rev. Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012), South Korean founder of the Unification Church, was convicted of tax evasion. Moon had moved to America in 1971. He claimed to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and that his purpose was "to unite Christianity and bring families back to God." "Moonies in America" [by Shupe et al] is a book critical of the Unification Church. Moon served 13 months in prison.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.A1,8)(AP, 5/18/07)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.90)
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)
1983 Oct 9, The president of South Korea, Chun Doo Hwan, with his cabinet and other top officials were scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb exploded. Hwan had not yet arrived so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans, including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members, and two Burmese were killed. North Korea was blamed. In the “Rangoon Massacre" a terrorist attack plotted by North Korea killed 17 South Korean officials on a visit to Burma.
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A18)(HN, 10/9/98)
1984 In South Korea Yoon Jeong-Hun (58) was arrested on charges of collecting military secrets for North Korea while studying at a medical college in Seoul. Yoon, who was born to Korean parents in Osaka, Japan, was sentenced to seven years in jail in the same year. He was paroled in 1988. In 2011 an appeals court cleared him of espionage charges, saying his confession was made under torture by military investigators.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
1984 Pope John Paul II visited South Korea and canonized over 100 martyrs executed from 1791-1888 during the Joseon Dynasty.
(SFC, 8/13/14, p.A7)
1986 Choe Deok-sin (aka Choi Dok Shin) (1914-1989), a former South Korean foreign minister, defected to North Korea along with his wife Ryu Mi-yong (1921-2016). In 2019 their son , Choe In-guk, also defected to North Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choe_Deok-sin)(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A4)
1986 Hyundai, a South Korean auto maker, entered the US market with low cost cars.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.72)
1987 Apr 14, In South Korea displaced residents of Sanggyedong protested against the government of dictator Chun Doo-hwan for demolishing their houses in Seoul.
(AP, 3/11/18)
1987 Jun, In South Korea millions flooded the streets of Seoul and other big cities to protest over the death of a student at the hands of torturers under Chun Doo-hwan (b.1931).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)(Econ 5/6/17, p.35)
1987 Jul 10, In South Korea Chun Doo-hwan resigned as head of the Democratic Justice Party, remaining its Honorary Chairman but giving official political party control for the upcoming election to Roh.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)
1987 Aug 29, In South Korea 33 followers of a cult were found bound, gagged and murdered in a factory in Yongin. Authorities said the tourist souvenir factory was owned by Park Soon Ja (48), the cult leader who was called "Benevolent Mother" by her followers.
(AP, 8/30/87)(Econ, 6/14/14, p.36)
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 Nov 29, A Korean Air jetliner, Flight 858, disappeared off Burma over the Indian Ocean, with the loss of all 115 people aboard. North Korean spies had planted a time-bomb on the South Korean Air jet a day earlier and got off in Abu Dhabi. Kim Hyon-hui and her accomplice were arrested two days later in Bahrain, where they tried to kill themselves by taking cyanide. The man died, but Kim recovered and was extradited to Seoul. She was convicted of the bombing and was sentenced to death. Even while on trial, she won admirers for her classic good looks. She was eventually pardoned and became a best-selling author, writing books about her time as a spy.
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A18)(AP, 11/29/97)(AP, 7/20/10)
1987 Dec 16, In South Korea fellow opposition leaders Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung split the opposition vote in the country’s first democratic elections. This allowed Chun Doo-hwan’s handpicked former army general Roh Tae-woo to win with 37% of the vote.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)(SFC, 11/23/15, p.C4)(Econ 5/6/17, p.36)
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)
1987 In South Korea Lee Kun-hee took the helm of Samsung following the death of his father, founder of the company. By 2015 annual revenues were over $300 billion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.51)
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 Oct 2, An Olympic scandal involved American boxer Roy Jones, who was robbed of a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, when he lost a split decision to South Korea's Park Si-Hun despite outpunching his opponent 86-32. Three judges who voted for the Korean were later suspended.
(AP, 9/23/11)(http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=T-8IS94GFyY)
1988 In South Korea Elena Shushunova (1969-2018), a Soviet gymnast, won the women's all-around gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
(AP, 8/16/18)
1988 South Korea summoned the nation’s big bosses for an inquiry into the corporate funding of a foundation run by Dictator Chun Doo-hwan.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.64)
1988 South Korea saw the formation of a National Headquarters for Labor Law Reform.
(www.socialistworld.net/publications/southkorea/sk13.html)
1988 South Korea introduced its National Pension Scheme.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
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 Jul, In South Korea Yoon Seong-yeo (22), a mechanic in the farming town of Hwaseong, was arrested after police accused him of raping and murdering the girl in September 1988. In 2019 Lee Chun-jae, a man who was serving a life sentence for murdering his sister-in-law in 1994, confessed to a number of murders, including that of the 13-year-old girl. In 2020 Yoon cleared his name in court.
(AP, 12/18/20)
1989 A report from Seoul National University estimated that 48,000 buildings housing 720,000 people were destroyed during the five years preceding the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
(AP, 3/11/18)
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)
1989 Humax, a maker of digital set top boxes, was founded in South Korea. By 2011 annual revenues exceeded $865 million.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.82)
1989 In South Korea Park In-keun (d.2016), the owner of a state-funded facility for the homeless and disabled, was acquitted of charges linked to illegal confinement of inmates. Hundreds of deaths, rapes and beatings at the Brothers Home, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, were documented in a 2016 report. In 2020 South Korea's Supreme Court said it will reopen the case.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
1990 South Korea and Russia established diplomatic relations. This allowed some 4,000 Koreans to returned from Sakhalin. Historians say Japan forcibly mobilized around 30,000 Koreans as workers during the late 1930s and 1940s on what was then called Karafuto, or the Japanese-occupied southern half of Sakhalin.
(AP, 8/11/20)
1991 Apr 19, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in South Korea for talks with President Roh Tae-woo.
(AP, 4/19/01)
1991 May 1, In South Korea former student Park Seung-hee (19) set herself on fire at Chunnam University to challenge continuing police violence under Pres. Roh Tae-woo.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycf7d5wr)(Econ 5/6/17, p.37)
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)
1991 US Pres. George H.W. Bush ordered the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from South Korea as a prelude to talks with North Korea two years later. 950 had been placed there after the Korean War.
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.35)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.25)
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 Oct 24, China normalized relations with South Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93South_Korea_relations)
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)
1992 A South Korean sex worker was killed by an American soldier. In 2017 filmmaker Gina Kim brought the murder to life in "Bloodless," a 12-minute piece that won the award for best VR story at this year's Venice Film Festival.
(AP, 10/1/17)
1993 Feb 25, Kim Young-sam (1927-2015) began serving as the 7th president of South Korea and continued to 1998.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
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)
1993 Oct 10, In South Korea the Seohae ferry sank killing 292 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_MV_Seohae)
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 May, In South Korea Lee Chun-jae was sentenced to death for killing his 18-year-old relative. In 1995 the sentence was reduced by a higher court to a life in prison and he became eligible to apply for parole in 2015. Mr Lee later acknowledged that he had murdered 14 women and girls around the city of Hwaseong between 1986 and 1991.
(The Telegraph, 11/2/20)
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 Aug 30, South Korea’s May 18 Memorial Foundation was created by people who believed it important to keep the ideas and memories of the May 18, 1980, Democratic Uprising in Gwangju alive and remembered.
(http://tinyurl.com/yd46rd3d)
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 In South Korea Samsung boss Lee Kun-hee had 150,000 faulty mobile phones and other devices burned and bulldozed in front of weeping employees.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.61)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.57)
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 Kun 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 South Korea joined the OECD, the club for rich democracies.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
1996 Mayor Sim Jae Duck of Suwon, South Korea, 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 In South Korea 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 In South Korea Cho Choong-pil (20) was stabbed to death at a Burger King restaurant in Itaewon, an entertainment district near the US military headquarters in Seoul. US teenagers Edward Lee and Arthur Patterson accused each other of killing Cho. Lee was later sentenced to life in prison but an appeals court later reduced that to 20 years. Patterson initially got an 18-month jail term for destroying evidence and possessing a dangerous weapon. In 2015 Patterson was extradited to South Korea to face a new trial. In 2016 Patterson (36) was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
(AP, 9/23/15)(AP, 1/29/16)
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 Mar 31, Starcraft, a military science fiction real-time strategy video game, was released in South Korea. It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, a California-based company.
(Econ, 10/30/10, p.71)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft)
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 Geumgangsan (Mount Diamond), just on the northern side of the divided Korean peninsula. Hyundai Asan began operating the 4,900-acre compound. The collaboration halted in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. In 2001 North Korea told South Korean tourism officials to leave the resort.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W7)(SFC, 8/23/11, p.A2)
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)
1998-2000 In South Korea Kim Jong-pil, the founder of South Korea's spy agency, served his second term as prime minister.
(AP, 6/23/18)
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, Naver was incorporated as NHN Corp. by ex-Samsung employees, and launched on September 12 as the first Web portal in South Korea that used its own proprietary search engine. In 2017 Naver was the fifth most used search engine in the world, following Google, Yahoo, Baidu and Bing.
(https://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 6, The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) was set up to help East Asian cash strapped countries defend their currencies in times of trouble. The initiative came in response to the 1997 East Asian financial crises. ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea launched the multilateral arrangement of currency swaps (CMI).
(WSJ, 5/5/05, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai_Initiative)
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 June 13, 2000, summit with Pres. Kim Dae-jung.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/1/03)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(Econ, 8/29/09, p.76)
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 19, North Korea announced it had made the city of Sinuiju on its border with China a "special administrative region," a move South Korean media said was the first step towards creating a new economic zone. The project was soon mothballed after its first governor, Yang Bin, was jailed in China for tax evasion. Yang Bin was formally sentenced in July 2003 for 18 years, and was fined for 2.3 million renminbi.
(Reuters, 9/19/02)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Bin)
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)
2002-2005 North Korean animators produced parts of a South Korean cartoon show featuring Pororo, a purple, handbag-carrying penguin.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.63)
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 Jun, A pilot Confucius Institute program, designed to promote the study of Chinese abroad, was established in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The first Confucius Institute was then established in Seoul on Nov 21, 2004. The 75th was established in Cracow, Poland, in 2006. By the end of 2013 there were 440 institutes in over 100 countries.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.51)
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 Psy, a South Korean rapper famous for “Gangnam Style," said American soldiers should be killed "slowly and painfully" at a Seoul concert during the Iraq war. In 2012 he apologized for his words ahead of a holiday concert to be attended by US President Obama and his family.
(AP, 12/8/12)
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 Jan 29, Nam June Paik (74), avant-garde Korean-American artist, died in Miami, Florida. He is credited with inventing video art in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. In a 1974 report commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, Paik wrote of a telecommunications network of the future he called the "Electronic Super Highway," predicting it "will become our springboard for new and surprising human endeavors."
(AP, 1/30/06)(http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3670)
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 16, Shootings in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech left 32 people dead. Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least 15 people were hurt, some seriously. Two professors from India and Israel were among the dead at the Virginia Tech shooting, the deadliest in US history. The gunman was a South Korean national named Seung-Hui Cho (23). Cho was an undergraduate student in his senior year majoring in English who lived on campus. His residence was in Centerville, Virginia, and he had resident alien status. Between shootings Seung-Hui took time to e-mail videos, photos and writings to NBC. Virginia law allowed Cho to buy one gun each month. In 2009 Lucinda Roy, head of English at Virginia Tech, authored “No Right To Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech."
(AP, 4/16/07)(AP, 4/17/07)(AFP, 4/17/07)(WSJ, 4/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.27)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.32)
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. On Dec 4, 2011, a settlement was reached to pay 120 SF Bay Area commercial fishermen $3.6 million.
(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)(SFC, 1/5/11, p.C3)
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. Chairman Lee Kun-hee was ordered to pay $40 million in taxes and $95.6 billion in fines. A 3-year prison sentence was suspended.
(AP, 4/17/08)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.74)
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 MV Amira after it came under attack. 17 suspected pirates were apprehended following the attack in the Gulf of Aden. In 2010 a Kenya court freed all 17 pirates for lack of evidence. A magistrate blamed the loss of the case on the US Navy for not providing video and photographic proof that they claimed to have.
(AP, 5/14/09)(AP, 11/5/10)
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 Jul 30, North Korea's military seized four South Korean fishermen after their boat strayed into North Korean waters. The fishermen were released on Aug 29.
(AP, 7/31/09)(AP, 8/29/09)
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)
2009 Aug 25, South Korea launched its first rocket, just months after rival North Korea's launch drew international anger, but space officials said the satellite it carried failed to enter its intended orbit.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 6, Six South Koreans camping and fishing along a river flowing from North Korea were swept away when it suddenly doubled in height, because a new dam in the North released a large amount of water without warning. On Oct 14 North Korea offered a rare apology for unleashing the dam water and promised to alert Seoul to such measures in the future.
(AP, 9/6/09)(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Sep 9, In South Korea performers from around the world have gathered on the South Korean island of Jeju for this week's international Delphic Games, popularly known as the "Culture Olympics." The first Delphic Games of the modern era were held in Russia in 2000 and the second in Malaysia in 2005.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 10, Australia announced liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals worth up to 60 billion US dollars with Japan and South Korea, raising its status as a major energy supplier.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 18, South Korean scientists said they had developed a new transistor which moves faster and consumes less energy than existing semiconductors, a technology opening the way for no-booting computers.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 26, In North Korea 97 older South Koreans reunited with 228 North Korean relatives at the Diamond Mountain resort. This was the first reunion in nearly two years.
(SSFC, 9/27/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 28, South Korea's parliament endorsed the appointment of economics professor Chung Un-Chan as prime minister despite strong objections by opposition parties.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 28, In China foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea pledged to deepen cooperation on non-proliferation and disarmament, as pressure grew on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
(AFP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 5, A South Korean lawmaker, Kwon Young-se, said North Korea has received the equivalent of about $2.2 billion under deals aimed at persuading the isolated nation to dismantle its nuclear facilities, in what his office said is the first accounting of the cost of the failed strategy. In addition to the money it was given in the disarmament-for-aid deals, the North has also received nearly 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) of food, fertilizer and other humanitarian aid from the US, South Korea and international organizations over the past 10 years.
(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 10, China, Japan and South Korea held a 3-way summit in Beijing.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.43)
2009 Oct 14, In South Korea Rev. Sun Myung Moon (89) married thousands of couples in the Unification Church's largest mass wedding in a decade and potentially the last for the leader. More than 20,000 people gathered at Sun Moon University campus in Asan, south of Seoul, for the "blessing ceremony" while some 20,000 more joined simultaneous ceremonies in the US, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. The spectacle came as Moon, the church's controversial founder, moved to hand day-to-day leadership over to his 3 sons and daughter.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, Top EU and South Korean trade officials signed a free trade deal which the EU said could boost trade between the two by euro19 billion ($28 billion).
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 26, South Korea offered a small amount of food aid to North Korea, its first direct assistance to the impoverished neighbor in nearly two years of strained relations.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 26, Kang Tong Rim (30) defected into North Korea. The next day a South Korean military statement said Kang had formerly served in an army division near where a fence was found cut and he has been on a police wanted list following his alleged involvement in an assault case in September.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 26, In South Korea Dr. Hwang Woo-suk (56), a stem cell scientist, was convicted on criminal charges relating to faked research, but avoided jail time.
(SFC, 10/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 27, The Japanese destroyer JS Kurama collided with the South Korean container ship Carina Star in the Kanmon Strait near the southern main island of Kyushu and both were engulfed in flames.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 30, South Korea announced plans to send troops to Afghanistan to protect its civilian aid workers, two years after withdrawing its forces following a fatal hostage crisis.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 10, A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border about 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South's ship returned fire before the North's vessel sailed back toward its waters.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Korea at least ten people, including eight Japanese tourists, were killed and six others injured in a blaze at an indoor shooting range in Busan.
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 17, South Korea announced its first greenhouse gas reduction target, pledging to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by 4 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, South Korean auto giant Hyundai said it would roll out another new small car in India as it jostles with rivals for a larger slice of the fast-growing Indian market.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, In South Korea President Barack Obama said a US envoy would visit North Korea early next month, as he joined South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in urging the communist state back to nuclear talks.
(AFP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 19, In France South Korean model Daul Kim (20), a fashion week regular in New York, Milan and Paris, was been found hanged in her Paris apartment.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 28, A South Korean fishing vessel burned and sank in the port of Uruguay's capital. Navy officials said all 38 crew members are safe.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 10, North Korea agreed to accept medicine from South Korea to fight an outbreak of swine flu, in a development that could improve relations between the nations after a deadly maritime clash.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 17, Xcor Aerospace of Mohave, Ca., the developer of a rocket plane for space tourism, said it has been selected to supply launch services to the Yecheon Astro Space Center, a nonprofit organization in South Korea.
(SFC, 12/18/09, p.A21)
2009 Dec 18, South Korea's military said it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the US and may have been carried out by North Korea.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 18, South Korean trucks crossed into North Korea delivering enough doses of antiviral drugs for 500,000 North Koreans. An estimated 50 people in North Korea have died of swine flu since November. Han Su Chol, a North Korean health minister, expressed thanks.
(SFC, 12/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Dec 27, A South Korean consortium, led by Korea Electric Power (KEPCO), won a $20 billion contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.47)
2009 Dec 31, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak pardoned former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was convicted of tax evasion on Apr 17, 2008. Pres. Lee Myung-bak said the country needed Mr. Lee’s help to win South Korea’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.74)
2009 In South Korea an average of 40 people a day took their lives this year.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 13, North Korea said it will begin to allow in more American tourists after years of heavy restrictions on visits to the isolate country. North Korea's military warned that it would retaliate against South Korea if Seoul doesn't stop activists from launching propaganda leaflets across their divided border.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 19, North and South Korea discussed development of their joint industrial complex, despite Pyongyang's recent threats it might break off all dialogue with its neighbor and could even stage an attack.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, South Korea’s health ministry said in a statement that switches will be flicked at 7.30 pm every third Wednesday in the month to "help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing." Low birthrate was a pressing issue in this fast-ageing society.
(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 24, North Korea threatened South Korea with war after Seoul warned it would launch a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack, the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 27, North Korea fired more than 80 shells into the sea near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, sparking an artillery exchange which fuelled tensions on the peninsula.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 1, Officials from the two Koreas met in North Korea to discuss their joint industrial complex just days after an exchange of gunfire at sea emphasized the constant security threat on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 4, A South Korean news report said the director of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's secret moneymaking "Room 39" bureau has been fired. Analysts said the move may be a way to get around international sanctions. Room 39 is described as the lynchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family. The department is believed to finance his family and top party officials with business ventures, some legitimate and some not, that include counterfeiting and drug-smuggling.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 6, In South Korea a giant steel float that will be part of a "floating island" in Seoul boasting off-shore entertainment facilities began a snails-paced trip towards Han River. The three-meter high float, 85 meters long and 49 meters wide, will be part of Viva, one of three artificial islets to be built near the southern end of Banpo Bridge.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 11, South Korea said the North Korean government has made a rare apology for a policy blunder and lifted a ban on using foreign currency.
(SFC, 2/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 14, South Korea’s Samsung, the world's second-biggest handset maker, unveiled its first phone to use its own new operating system, called 'bada'.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada Kim Yu-Na (19) of South Korea, achieved her country's first Olympic figure skating title with a resounding victory in the Pacific Coliseum.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Mar 3, An American diplomat based in South Korea fled to the Philippines after facing charges that he swindled a local woman out of nearly $200,000 in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 19, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Cambodia has temporarily suspended marriages between South Koreans and its citizens to curb human trafficking. The latest ban came after the March 3 conviction of a Cambodian matchmaker who arranged marriages between Korean men and 25 Cambodian brides.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 27, Korea Life became the first big South Korean life insurer to go public. Others were expected to soon follow.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.81)
2010 Apr 4, The South Korean Samho Dream oil supertanker was bound for the US with 24 crew members when was hijacked off the coast of Somalia by Somali pirates. On Nov 6 South a Korean news agency said the ship was freed following a ransom payment of $9.5 million.
(AFP, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 11/6/10)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.70)
2010 Apr 8, North Korea said it had scrapped a tourism deal with South Korea and would "freeze" some assets owned by Seoul at a mountain resort in the communist state.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 11, North Korea informed South Korea that it will begin quitting a joint tourism project in the communist country this week, in another setback to relations between the countries.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 20, In South Korea two North Korean army majors were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill Hwang Jang-yop (87), a high-profile defector. Jang-yop was one of North Korea's most powerful officials when he fled the impoverished nation 13 years ago in a defection that reportedly enraged Kim Jong Il.
(AP, 4/21/10)
2010 Apr 22, A South Korean news report said the South Korea's military believes a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank its navy ship last month, based on intelligence gathered jointly with the United States.
(Reuters, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 23, North Korea said it will confiscate five South Korean-owned properties at a jointly operated mountain resort in the isolated communist country, a development likely to worsen already-soured relations.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 27, In Nepal Oh Eun-sun (44), a South Korean mountaineer, became the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest mountains, crawling on all fours as she reached the last summit. She reached the summit of Annapurna 13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 May 12, In South Korea there were two separate cases of suspected group suicide. 4 women and one man — all in their 20s and 30s — were found dead inside a parked car in Hwaseong. 2 of the five left suicide notes. 3 men were found dead hours later in Chuncheon, about 85 km (50 miles) east of Seoul.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 20, A multinational team blamed North Korea for sinking the South Korean corvette with a torpedo in March, claiming 46 lives, prompting an angry denial from Pyongyang and a threat of war if it is punished.
(AFP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 24, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak cut trade to North Korea vowing the country would "pay a price" for a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors, and promised to haul its impoverished neighbor before the UN Security Council. Lee Myung-bak said that the country will take Pyongyang to the UN Security Council, suspend inter-Korean exchanges and ban North Korean ships from passing through its waters.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, North Korea declared that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 27, South Korean warships fired guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs in a large-scale military exercise, a week after Seoul accused North Korea of shooting a torpedo that sank a navy frigate in March. North Korean declared it would scrap an accord with the South designed to prevent armed clashes at their maritime border, and warned of "immediate physical strikes" if any South Korean ships enter its waters.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, A South Korean couple were convicted of abandoning their newborn daughter, who starved to death while they addictively played an online game raising a virtual child.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 29, The premier of China, North Korea's main ally, offered condolences to South Korea for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising that Beijing, under pressure to punish the North, would not defend any country guilty of the attack.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Jun 2, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said 14,579 people committed suicide last year, with people over 61 accounting for about one-third of the deaths. Yonhap said the National Police Agency provided the figures.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 4, South Korea handed over a letter officially referring North Korea to the UN Security Council over the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which left 46 sailors killed.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In South Korea finance chiefs of the Group of 20 leading economies worked to craft an agenda for keeping the global recovery on track and fending off future crises, sidestepping conflicts to present a united show of support for Europe's $1 trillion bailout.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 10, A South Korean 2-stage Naro rocket carrying a climate observation satellite apparently exploded 137 seconds into its flight, the country's second major space setback in less than a year.
(AP, 6/10/10)(SFC, 6/11/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 10, In San Francisco the office tower at 333 Market St. was sold to a group of South Korean investors including the Korean Teacher’s Credit Union and Korean Federation of community Credit Cooperatives for $333 million. Wells Fargo occupied 100% of the rentable space with a lease that runs to 2026. Wells Fargo also provided a $200 million loan at 4.5% to the buyers.
(SFC, 6/12/10, p.D1)
2010 Jun 18, A South Korean Air Force fighter jet crashed into the sea after a training mission and its two pilots were killed.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 21, South Korea said abnormally high radiation levels were detected near the border between the two Koreas on may 15, days after North Korea claimed to have mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 23, South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 9, South Korean prosecutors raided the office of PM Chung Un-chan over allegations that its ethics officials illegally investigated a businessman two years ago over the posting of an Internet video critical of the president.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 25, The US and South Korea launched a major naval exercise involving a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan despite North Korea's threats of nuclear retaliation.
(AFP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 31, Land mines began washing up on South Korean shores, apparently swept down from North Korea by torrential rains. One killed a man and wounded another.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Jul 31, UNESCO added seven cultural sites to its World Heritage List including Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, home to nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and 1950s. Also added to the list were the Turaif District in Saudi Arabia; Australia's penal colony sites; the Jantar Mantar astronomical observation site in India; a shrine in Ardabil in Iran; the Tabriz historic bazaar complex, also in Iran; and the historic villages of Hahoe and Yangdong in South Korea.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 8, North Korean authorities seized a South Korean fishing boat and its 7-man crew. North Korea freed the crew on Sep 7.
(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Aug 10, Japan apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule over the country, seeking to strengthen ties between the two countries ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 14, South Korean Lee Dae-Ho broke a world record by scoring a home run for his ninth straight game.
(AFP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 15, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak proposed a 3-step plan to unify the Korean peninsula and a new tax to help his country absorb the enormous cost of integration.
(SFC, 8/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 17, North Korea rejected a new unification proposal from South Korea, calling it a "ridiculous" plan aimed at weakening the North in preparation for a US-assisted invasion.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 19, South Korea said it has blocked North Korea's new Twitter account from being accessed in the South, saying the tweets contain "illegal information" under the country's security laws.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 20, South Korean authorities arrested Rev. Han Sang-ryol, a religious activist, as he returned home across the heavily fortified border after an illegal trip to North Korea. South Korea’s government prohibits its citizens from joining pro-North Korean organizations or having unauthorized contact with the communist country. They also ban citizens from supporting or praising the North.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Sep 1, A South Korean news report and an intelligence official said North Korea has changed the names of its trading companies and falsified trade documents to avoid international sanctions and continue exporting weapons.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, Typhoon Kompasu struck South Korea, killing 5 people and toppling trees, streetlights and scaffolding in what was called the strongest storm to hit the Seoul area in 15 years. In North Korea the typhoon killed dozens of people and destroyed roads, railways and thousands of homes.
(AP, 9/2/10)(AP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 8, South Korea said it will ban unauthorized financial dealings with Iran and impose other penalties as part of a US-led campaign to enforce sanctions against the country over its disputed nuclear enrichment program. South Korea listed 126 Iranian companies and individuals for the sanctions.
(AP, 9/8/10)(SFC, 9/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 13, South Korea announced plans to send 5,000 tons of rice and other aid to flood-stricken North Korea in a sign of easing tension between the divided countries.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, The Korea Communications Commission said there were 50 million mobile service subscribers in South Korea as of this month, more than the population of 48.8 million.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, North Korea said it proposed a joint probe with the US of the deadly March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship. An earlier international investigation blamed Pyongyang.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and 100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Oct 1, Red Cross officials from the two Koreas agreed to hold reunions for families separated by the Korean War amid mixed signals from North Korea on easing tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 7, South Korean financial regulators said they will suspend the operations of an Iranian bank for two months, as part of international sanctions over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 10, In South Korea Hwang Jang-yop (87), the key architect of North Korea's isolationist state policy, was found dead at his Seoul residence. He once mentored authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il before defecting to South Korea in 1997.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 10, Some 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 10, Kim Jong Un (26), the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (68), joined his father at a massive military parade in his most public appearance since being unveiled as the nation's next leader. South Korean activists also sent some 20,000 leaflets packed with $1 bills and CDs carrying anti-Kim Jong Un rap songs floating across the border in hopes of reaching ordinary North Koreans.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 25, South Korea prepared to send 5,000 tons of rice to flood victims in North Korea in its first humanitarian rice shipment to its communist neighbor since a conservative, pro-US government took office in 2008.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 27, South Korea's Red Cross said North Korea is demanding that South Korea resume large-scale food aid and joint economic projects in return for regular reunions of family members separated by the Korean War more than a half century ago.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 29, North and South Korea exchanged gunfire across their heavily armed land border, despite an apparent thaw in tensions on the divided peninsula in the past few months.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, Hundreds of North and South Korean family members separated for more than half a century by the Korean War embraced each other in tearful reunions.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 7, In South Korea thousands of people chanted anti-globalization slogans in Seoul to protest this week's Group of 20 summit. Part of the crowd attempted to march down nearby streets but were stopped by riot police, who fired pepper spray.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 10, President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea for the G20 summit. He said a strong, job-creating economy in the United States would be the country's most important contribution to a global recovery as he pleaded with world leaders to work together despite sharp differences.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 10, A South Korean navy ship was sinking late Wednesday after colliding with a larger fishing boat off the southern coast. 28 navy sailors were rescued but two were still missing.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, A 2-day G20 economic summit opened in Seoul, South Korea, with President Barack Obama and fellow world leaders sharply divided over currency and trade policies. They hoped to address 3 major concerns: a) the dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency and America’s management of it; b) the problem of vast foreign exchange reserves, particularly in emerging countries; c) The scale and volatility of capital flows.
(AP, 11/11/10)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.85)
2010 Nov 11, A woman (41) made her way to South Korea from North Korea becoming the 20,000th defector to do so. The last 10,000 came over the last 3 years.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 12, In South Korea leaders of the G20 major economies refused to back a US push to make China boost its currency's value, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade war amid criticism that cheap Chinese exports are costing American jobs.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, A South Korean spy plane crashed during routine training and its two pilots were killed in the 2nd military accident to strike South Korea while it hosted the G20 summit.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 14, Iranian officials reported that Iran’s Entekhab Industrial Group has signed a contract sealing its acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Electronics for some $518 million. Daewoo was set up in the 1960s and became one of the biggest companies in the world before it disintegrated in financial disarray in the 1990s. Its shipbuilding and auto units are now independent companies in their own right.
(AFP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 15, South Korea's government the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has surged in recent years because of economic suffering in the North, with more than 10,000 defections over the past three years.
(AP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 15, In South Korea a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after killing his mother in a fight over Internet games.
(AP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 23, North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire after the North shelled Yeonpyeong island near their disputed sea border, killing at least 2 South Korean marines and 2 civilians, setting dozens of buildings ablaze and sending civilians fleeing for shelter.
(AP, 11/23/10)(AFP, 11/24/10)(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.5)
2010 Nov 25, South Korea's defense minister resigned amid intense criticism two days after a North Korean artillery attack killed four people on a small island near the Koreas' disputed frontier.
(AP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 28, China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the US and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Dec 3, South Korea threatened to bomb North Korea if it tries a repeat of last week's attack, raising its rhetoric after the US warned of an "immediate threat" from Pyongyang.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, Lithuania said a South Korean bidder, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), had pulled out of a four-nation nuclear power plant project and another was rejected. Lithuania itself has been aiming to have a stake of around one-third, but there has been disagreement with Estonia, Latvia and Poland about their relative holdings and power share-out.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak promised to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, The EU competition watchdog fined 5 Taiwanese and South Korean electronics companies euro649 million ($857 million) for fixing prices on LCD panels between 2001 and 2006. Samsung Electronics Co., also participated in the price fixing but escaped a fine because it blew the whistle on the cartel.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 13, A South Korean fishing boat sank in the Antarctic Ocean's frigid waters, with 22 sailors feared killed in the open sea where vessels trawl for deep-water fish. 20 survivors were rescued shortly after the 614-ton vessel went down some 1,400 miles (2,250 km) south of New Zealand. 5 bodies were recovered and 17 men remained missing.
(AP, 12/13/10)(SFC, 12/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 17, North Korea said it would strike again at the South if a live-firing drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people. Russia urged South Korea to halt plans for the artillery drill.
(AP, 12/17/10)(Reuters, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, A 63-ton Chinese fishing boat capsized after ramming into a 3,000-ton South Korean coastguard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities, leaving one Chinese crew member dead and another missing.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 19, The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 22, South Korea announced land and sea military exercises including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang's attack on a southern island.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 28, South Korean education officials said almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city, in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec, In South Korea Jay Y. Lee (43), the son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was named president of Samsung Group, which contained 83 firms under an umbrella company called Everland. The Lee family controlled a 46% stake.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.77)
2010 The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established within the framework of the UNFCCC. It was founded as a mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. It is based in the new Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Climate_Fund)
2011 Jan 1, In South Korea one of five wild ducks found dead this week was confirmed to have been infected with a lethal strain of the bird flu virus, its first outbreak in over two years.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 3, In India a government environmental panel approved the initial stage of a project by POSCO of South Korea, to produce 4 million tons of steel on a 4,000-acre site in Orissa state. Activists opposed the project citing ecological damage.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.67)
2011 Jan 5, North Korea proposed "unconditional" talks with Seoul to mend battered cross-border ties, in its most conciliatory remarks since cranking up tensions by shelling a South Korean island. South Korea dismissed the North Korean offer.
(AFP, 1/5/11)(Reuters, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 8, North Korea reiterated a proposal for unconditional talks with South Korea to ease tensions on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 10, South Korea rebuffed a North proposal for talks to ease tensions but extended its own offer to discuss last year's two military attacks blamed on Pyongyang and North Korea's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 12, North and South Korea restored an important cross-border communication channel, though South Korea still rejected North Korea's calls for talks to defuse high tensions.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 13, In South Korea prize-winning director Park Chan-wook's said his latest film, "Night Fishing," was filmed using 10 Apple iPhone 4s, three of which he himself controlled.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 18, The South Korean commandos aboard a speedboat and a Lynx helicopter were dispatched to rescue a Mongolian ship from Somali pirates. The firefight left several pirates missing and believed killed.
(AP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 20, South Korea agreed to a North Korean offer of high-level military talks, a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula which improves the prospect of renewed aid-for-disarmament negotiations.
(Reuters, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 21, South Korean navy commandos stormed the Samho Jewelry, a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the 21 crew and killing eight pirates. The pirates had seized the 11,500-ton chemical freighter Samho Jewelry on January 15. Five pirates were captured.
(AFP, 1/21/11)(AP, 1/31/11)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.69)
2011 Jan 26, In South Korea an art exhibition by North Korean defector Song Byeok opened in Seoul. One work featured the head of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, smiling beneath his trademark sunglasses and wall of black hair, atop the body of Marilyn Monroe, pushing down her white dress in an updraft.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 31, India gave approval to South Korea's POSCO to build a giant $12 billion steel plant, in the country's biggest foreign investment deal since market reforms launched in 1991.
(AFP, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 8, Military officers from North and South Korea held talks inside the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone in the rivals' first official dialogue since the North's deadly artillery barrage of a South Korean island in November.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, North Korean military officers stalked out of the first official talks with rival South Korea in months, dashing hopes for eased tensions after a deadly artillery attack in November increased fears of war on the peninsula. The meeting was sunk because the two sides disagreed about what should be on the agenda of their next talks.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 21, Danish shipper Maersk announced the order of 10 colossal container ships from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.73)
2011 Feb 28, US and South Korean troops launched major annual land, sea and air exercises, amid North Korean threats to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" in the event of any provocation.
(AFP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 4, North Korea blocked the repatriation of 27 citizens whose boat drifted into South Korean waters, insisting that Seoul also hand over four others who want to stay in the South. The 31 North Koreans were travelling on a fishing boat which drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog on February 5.
(AFP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, In South Korea unidentified attackers targeted more than two dozen government and private websites. Officials reported no serious damage a day after a pair of similar assaults.
(AP, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 27, The Red Cross said South Korea has repatriated 27 of 31 North Koreans whose status was uncertain for more than a month because 4 others on their drifting fishing boat defected.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 31, South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld a military law banning homosexual behavior, saying the need to maintain discipline takes precedence over individual sexual freedom.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 7, In South Korea a mathematics student (19) at a prestigious engineering college jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment one day after meeting the school psychiatrist. He was distressed over low grades. Three other students have killed themselves since January at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 20, South Korean telecoms operator KT rolled out Kibot, a robot playmate for children, in a move aimed at cashing in on the potentially lucrative industry.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 28, In South Korea former US President Jimmy Carter said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wants direct talks with South Korea's leader, an offer unlikely to be accepted until Pyongyang takes responsibility for violence that killed 50 South Koreans last year.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr, In South Korea Kim Ou-joon founded his podcast “Naneun Ggomsuda" (I’m a sneaky trickster) with the express purpose of making fun of Pres. Lee Myung-bak.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.46)
2011 May 4, South Korean police said the body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry in Mungyong.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 17, In South Korea hundreds of prostitutes and pimps rallied near a red-light district in Seoul to protest a police crackdown on brothels, with some unsuccessfully attempting to set themselves on fire.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 19, A South Korean court boosted the amount the government must pay a group of North Korean defectors who say a leak of their identities led to retaliation against their families in the North.
(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, South Korea said the United States has agreed on a joint investigation after American veterans claimed they buried large amounts of Agent Orange at the Camp Carroll US military base in South Korea in 1978. Environmental tests already confirmed extremely high levels of dioxin in people, fish and soil near the Camp Carroll air base.
(AP, 5/22/11)(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 30, European anti-trust regulators launched in-depth probes into proposed US takeovers of South Korean and Japanese businesses manufacturing computer hard disk drives (HDD). The planned acquisitions of the hard disk drive operations of South Korean electronics giant Samsung by Seagate Technology, and the storage business of Japan's Hitachi by Western Digital Corporation in a sector with just five manufacturers worldwide have raised concerns. Brussels officials have until October 10 to decide what action if any they will take.
(AFP, 5/30/11)
2011 Jun 2, South Korea police found the bodies of two men and two women in their 20s in a parked van in Seongju, about 190 miles (300 km) southeast of Seoul. A suicide note was found.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 3, North Korea vowed to launch "retaliatory military actions" against South Korea, a threat that came days after Seoul said its military had used photos of Pyongyang's ruling family for target practice.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 27, South Korea said it will resume imports of Canadian beef suspended in 2003 after an outbreak of mad cow disease, agreeing to allow meat from cows younger than 30 months old.
(Reuters, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 27, In South Korea unionized workers at Standard Chartered bank went on strike over the issue of performance related pay. Korean bank staff were typically paid and promoted according to age and time.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.68)
2011 Jul 4, A South Korean marine, surnamed Kim (19), killed four colleagues at a front-line base. He also wounded another marine when he opened fire at a Ganghwa Island base just south of the tense maritime border with North Korea. Kim tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by detonating a grenade after the shooting. On Jan 13, 2012, Kim was sentenced to death after a court martial.
(AP, 7/5/11)(AP, 1/13/12)
2011 Jul 15, Somali pirates holding South Korean hostages demanded that the South Korean government release pirate prisoners and pay compensation for a commando raid that killed several pirates earlier this year.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 27, South Korean scientists said they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
(Reuters, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 27, In South Korea walls of mud buried 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin and flash floods submerged the streets and subway stations in Seoul, killing at least 36 people in the country’s heaviest rains this year.
(AP, 7/27/11)(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 28, A South Korean Asiana Airlines cargo plane crashed in waters off southern Jeju resort island. South Korean pilot, identified by the airline as Choi Sang-ki, was flying a Boeing-747 with a co-pilot, transporting computers, semiconductors, resin solution and paint among other items to Pudong in China.
(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 29, Parts of North Korean land mines washed down a swollen river into South Korea, and troops searched for other mines that may have been dislodged by deadly landslides and flooding that has stricken the peninsula. A 2-day downpour left at least 40 people dead.
(AP, 7/29/11)(SFC, 7/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul, In South Korea 46 soccer players were arrested this month as part of an investigation in match fixing.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.39)
2011 Aug 1, A South Korean prosecutor said officials have arrested five South Koreans on suspicions of spying for North Korea.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 7, Tropical Storm Muifa battered South Korea with strong rain and winds leaving four people dead and two missing.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, South Korean officials said its ministry which handles relations with North Korea has been targeted by hackers in the latest of a series of online attacks on government and corporate websites.
(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 17, A group of some 27,000 South Koreans sued Apple for $26 million for what they claim are privacy violations from the collection of iPhone user location information.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 22, North Korea vowed to scrap all South Korean property at a joint mountain resort could end what was once a rare haven for curious southern tourists within North Korea. The South immediately expressed regret about the North's comments on Diamond Mountain and planned to seek international mediation.
(AP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 24, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak wrapped up a two-day state visit to Uzbekistan that was crowned by an agreement to develop a major gas field and build a chemicals plant in the country, energy deals worth a total of around $4.1 billion.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 25, South Korea prosecutors said 5 South Koreans, including a former parliamentary aide, have been indicted for allegedly spying for North Korea.
(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, In South Korea Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon's stepped down after losing a referendum on free school lunches for 50% of all schoolchildren. His resignation came two days after a citywide referendum that drew few of Seoul's 8 million eligible voters. The turnout of 25.7% didn't meet the legal requirement for counting ballots. The referendum's defeat means the 100% option takes effect.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Sep 22, In South Korea about 1,600 prostitutes and pimps at a rally in Seoul chanted slogans calling for laws, that toughened the punishment for prostitution, to be scrapped.
(AP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 27, It was reported that 3 activists opposing the North Korean government have been subjects in assassination attempts over the last 3 weeks by agents wielding poisoned needles. Two of the attacks took place in China, near the North Korean border, and the 3rd in Seoul, South Korea.
(SFC, 9/27/11, p.A3)
2011 Oct 4, Apple Inc rejected an offer from Samsung Electronics Co to settle their tablet computer dispute in Australia, possibly killing off the commercial viability of the South Korean firm's new Galaxy tablet in that market.
(Reuters, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 8, In South Korea US military officials apologized as they tried to ease growing public anger over 2 US soldiers who have been accused of raping teenage girls.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 12, The US Congress approved free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 18, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda started a visit to South Korea aimed at smoothing prickly relations, bringing with him a set of historic books seized by his country decades ago.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 21, In the southern Philippines 3 South Korean businessmen went missing. Officials later said they were abducted by unidentified men who lured them with a fake mining investment project. Police launched a search for Wu Seok-bung, Kim Nam-du, Choi In-soo and at least one Filipino guide after they failed to return to their hotel in Cagayan de Oro city. Choi In-soo escaped on Nov 25. Wu Seok-bung and Kim Nam-du were abandoned on Nov 26 as troops moved in. The guide was killed during captivity.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Oct 21, Pres. Obama signed free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/78rfnuz)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 28, South Korea's parliament approved a tougher law against sex crimes, inspired in part by a recent movie based on a real-life case of sexually abused deaf children.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 1, A South Korean court sentenced US soldier Pfc. Kevin Flippin to 10 years in prison for raping a teenage girl, the second harshest punishment handed down to a convicted American soldier here in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 3, South Korean police fired water cannons to disperse more than 2,000 protesters who were trying to break into the National Assembly as lawmakers debated a free trade deal with the United States. Protesters said the free trade agreement would subjugate South Korea's economy and ruin their livelihoods.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 5, A South Korean official said 21 North Koreans were found in a boat drifting in South Korean waters this week, the largest such arrival in nine months.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 8, In South Korea Vietnam agreed to seek greater nuclear energy cooperation with South Korea, opening the way for its participation in a project to build atomic power plants at home.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 12, South Korea dispatched patrol boats and a helicopter for 8 missing crewmen after a fishing boat collided with a freighter and sank off its southwestern coast.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 15, Saudi Arabia said it has signed an agreement with South Korea on developing nuclear power generation to help meet the kingdom's rising demand.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Manila for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Dec 9, Australia's highest court dismissed rival Apple's appeal in its global patent battle against South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. Samsung is now free to sell its Galaxy tablet computers in Australia.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 16, South Korea joined a fresh multinational effort to press Iran to scrap its suspected nuclear weapons program, adding more than 100 names to a financial blacklist of Iranian firms and individuals.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 26, A British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 The South Korean film “Late Blossom" was about growing old. This year over 4,000 South Koreans over age 65 committed suicide.
(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2011 In South Korea the personal information of 35 million people was stolen from Cyworld, the country’s most popular social network.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2011 In South Korea four pregnant women died of lung problems for unknown reasons. A subsequent government probe found a "significant association" between lung damage and products used to sterilize domestic humidifiers. Most of the victims were found to have used Oxy Ssak Ssak, a liquid humidifier disinfectant sold by British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser in South Korea from 2001, that has been blamed for around 103 deaths -- mostly women and children. In 2016 Oxy RB said it was committed to a multi-million dollar compensation plan.
(AFP, 5/2/16)
2012 Jan 8, South Korean police detained a Chinese man (38) accused of throwing petrol bombs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul after claiming his grandmother was forced into wartime sex slavery.
(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 9, The presidents of China and South Korea agreed to work together to achieve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, in their first summit since Kim Jong Il's death opened the chance for major changes in North Korea.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 10, Three Vietnamese crew from a South Korean fishing boat died and seven others suffered burns after a fire broke out on their trawler off Antarctica. the Busan-flagged Jeong Woo 2 was fishing for the rare Patagonian toothfish, along with ray, crab and other bottom fishes.
(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 16, The South Korea Customs Service said 8 men allegedly transformed $260,000 in gold bars into small beads and smuggled them in their rectums to Japan two times in 2010 to avoid import taxes.
(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 20, South Korea lifted its nine-year import ban on Canadian beef.
(Reuters, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 28, South Korean activists floated giant balloons carrying boxes of socks into North Korea hoping that North Koreans could wear the socks or trade them for food during the harsh winter.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 2, North Korea's top ruling body again rebuffed South Korea's call for talks, saying Seoul's conservative leaders should first "repent of their crimes" and honor past summit agreements.
(AFP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 7, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Riyadh at the start of a two-day visit to the OPEC kingpin which comes as Seoul seeks to diversify its oil sources. Lee Myung-Bak held talks with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and the head of Saudi state oil giant Aramco, Khalid al-Faleh. Saudi Arabia pledged to ensure a stable supply of oil to South Korea.
(AFP, 2/7/12)(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 10, Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.
(AP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 14, In South Korea over one hundred people rallied near the Chinese Embassy to protest China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned to their homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 20, South Korea conducted live-fire military drills from five islands near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea, despite Pyongyang's threat to attack.
(AP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 27, South Korean legislator Park Sun-Young (55), who has staged a week-long hunger strike outside China's embassy, vowed to fast until death unless Beijing ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 3, In Uruguay a South Korean fishing vessel caught fire in the Montevideo port. Two bodies were found near the machine room of the Jung Woo 3 as firefighters continued to extinguish the fire.
(AP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, In South Korea journalists walked out of the state-owned Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) due to government interference. They joined colleagues at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), already on strike for a month. Journalists claimed to have over 2,600 files pointing to illegal government surveillance carried out between 2008-2010.
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/82ns7pl)(Econ, 4/7/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 13, Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 15, South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin won Asia's most prestigious prize for literature for her novel "Please Look After Mom," about a family's guilty soul-searching after the disappearance of their elderly mother.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, KORUS, a long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, took effect. It slashed tariffs, tightened intellectual property rights and opened up South Korea’s services market. The agreement won praise from the two countries' leaders and prompting rallies by supporters and opponents.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.75)
2012 Mar 22, Russia’s Lukoil signed a $1 billion deal with South Korea's Samsung Engineering to develop Iraq's second-biggest oil field, in which the energy giant has a majority stake.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 25, Pres. Obama met with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a nuclear security conference in South Korea. Obama other key allies considered providing Syrian rebels with communications help, medical aid and other "non-lethal" assistance.
(AP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 26, In South Korea leaders or top officials from 53 nations gathered in Seoul for a summit on nuclear security. President Obama said the United States would further cut its own nuclear stockpiles, as he warned North Korea and Iran to back down over their atomic plans.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 27, In South Korea world leaders including US President Barack Obama called for strong steps to combat nuclear terrorism, wrapping up a 53-nation summit overshadowed by North Korea's planned rocket launch.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 29, South Korean activists burned pictures of Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda and scuffled with police in a protest against Tokyo's claims to disputed islands. The demonstration was sparked after Japan's education ministry this week announced the results of its review of a school history book reasserting Japan's claim to islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 13, North Korea’s satellite launch, hailed as a moment of national pride, ended in failure when the rocket disintegrated over the Yellow Sea, earning Pyongyang embarrassment as well as condemnation from a host of nations that deemed it a covert test of missile technology.
(AP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 25, Two major South Korean retailers pulled US beef from their stores following the discovery of mad cow disease in a California dairy cow. US health authorities a day earlier said the animal was never a threat to the nation's food supply. US authorities said the dead cow had what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that a random mutation in the animal rather than infected cattle feed was the cause.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 27, Tens of thousands of South Koreans flocked to the opening show of Lady Gaga's global tour, amid colorful scenes as female and male fans donned outrageous outfits in honor of the US pop diva.
(AFP, 4/27/12)
2012 Apr 28, North Korea began sending electronic GPS jamming signals affecting civilian flights in South Korea amid simmering cross-border tensions.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, South Korea's parliament approved a long-delayed bill to start trading carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, joining the vanguard of countries battling climate change.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 5, In South Korea a fierce blaze swept through a karaoke lounge in a busy commercial district of Busan, killing nine people including three Sri Lankans.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, South Korean officials said they have seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder.
(AP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 12, In South Korea Expo 2012 opened in the coastal city of Yeosu for a three-month run.
(AP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 13, North Korea stopped transmitting signals which jammed the GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea for two weeks. The signals originated from the North's border city of Kaesong and began on April 28.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 14, President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Myanmar on the first visit by a South Korean leader since a North Korean attempt to assassinate one of his predecessors in Yangon almost three decades ago. His two-day trip was aimed at promoting economic ties and encouraging the country's recent political reforms.
(AFP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 24, South Korea’s capital unveiled its latest landmark, a controversial $256 million city hall with an undulating glass structure that looms over its preserved colonial-era stone predecessor. It overshadowed the 1926 structure built during Japanese rule.
(AFP, 5/24/12)
2012 May 25, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of 9 South Koreans who demanded Japanese firms Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel pay them for forced labor from 1941-1945.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A2)
2012 May 31, South Korean police said 2 people including a Korean businessman in New Zealand were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of collecting intelligence on military equipment for North Korea.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May, A South Korean government funded human rights group published a 381-page report containing some 200 face-to-face interviews with defectors who survived political prison camps in North Korea.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A5)
2012 Jun 23, South Korea and the USA launched a massive 3-day naval exercise in the tense Yellow Sea, ahead of the 62nd anniversary (June 25) of the outbreak of the Korean War.
(AFP, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 26, In South Korea hundreds of journalists at Yonhap News Agency, the country’s leading news agency, returned to work ended a three-month strike called to demand fair reporting free of political pressure.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Meteorological officials in Pyongyang and Seoul said parts of North Korea are experiencing the most severe drought since record keeping began nearly 105 years ago. South Korean officials also reported the worst drought in more than a century in some areas after nearly two months without significant rainfall.
(AP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 27, South Korean archaeologist Cho Mi-soon said that the nation’s archeological agency has found the remains of a farming field from the Neolithic period on South Korea's east coast and that the site may be up to 5,600 years old.
(AP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jul 2, South Korea inaugurated Sejong City, a mini-capital to house much of the nation's government, ending a decade of wrangling over a project seen by critics as driven by politics.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 5, South Korean activist No Su-hui (68) was arrested as soon as he set foot on home soil, resisting police in a stunt of defiance after an unapproved, 3-month stay in the North.
(AP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, In Panama the International Whaling Commission rejected a request from Denmark for a whaling quota for indigenous groups in Greenland. Two days earlier it approved the renewal of bowhead whale quotas for indigenous subsistence whaling in Alaska and Russia and for St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. The United States says it doesn't support a South Korean plan to restart whale hunting for purportedly scientific purposes.
(AP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 9, A British judge ruled that Samsung's Galaxy tablet was not "cool" enough to be confused with Apple's iPad giving South Korea's Samsung a patent battle win against US rival Apple.
(AFP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 10, South Korean police said they were investigating 27 North Korean refugees for swindling private insurance firms out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus medical claims. More than 23,500 North Koreans have settled in the South since the 1950-53 war.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 11, South Korean authorities arrested Lee Sang-deuk (76), the elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak. He was taken to a detention center after a court approved a warrant on bribery allegations.
(AP, 7/11/12)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.37)
2012 Jul 24, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak apologized for a string of corruption scandals implicating his relatives and allies.
(SFC, 7/25/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 10, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak visited islets, locally called Dokdo, also claimed by Japan, where they are called Takeshima.
(SFC, 8/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 16, In South Korea Hanwha Corp. chairman Kim Seung-youn, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, was sentenced to four years prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million) for embezzlement in a ruling that shows a tougher stance against wrongdoing by leaders of the country's mightiest companies.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 18, In South Korea 8 people were stabbed by a man wielding a box cutter after a man and woman confronted him for spitting in a train.
(SSFC, 8/19/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 24, In San Jose, Ca., Apple won more than $1 billion in a massive US court victory over Samsung, in one of the biggest patent cases in decades, a verdict that could have huge market repercussions. Samsung reacted by saying it will contest the US verdict.
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Aug 28, Typhoon Bolaven pounded South Korea with strong winds and heavy rain as it churned up rough seas that smashed two Chinese fishing ships into rocks, killing at least five fishermen and forcing the coast guard to perform a daring rescue for the survivors. At least 9 other people were killed and 10 were missing as the typhoon knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.
(AP, 8/28/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)(SFC, 8/29/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 3, South Korean Unification Church patriarch Sun Myung Moon (92) died near his home in Gapyeong County.
(AP, 9/3/12)
2012 Sep 17, Typhoon Sanba lashed North and South Korea killing at least 2 people.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 6, A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol.
(AP, 10/6/12)
2012 Oct 7, South Korea announced that a US accord has been altered to allow the South to have ballistic missiles with a range of up to 800 km (500 miles) to better cope with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
(AP, 10/7/12)
2012 Oct 22, South Korean activists floated balloons carrying tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, eluding police who had disrupted an earlier launch attempt due to threats from North Korea.
(AP, 10/22/12)
2012 Nov 2, In South Korea an international team of scientists confirmed that a 5.5-ton elephant named Koshik at the Everland Zoo can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound. Koshik emerged as a star among animal enthusiasts and children in South Korea after Everland Zoo claimed in 2006 that he could imitate words, two years after his trainers noticed the phenomenon.
(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Dec 13, South Korean media reported that Kenneth Bae (44), a US citizen has been held in North Korea for a month. Security officials there had found a hard disk found in his possession they they believed contained sensitive information.
(SFC, 12/14/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 19, Ruling-party candidate Park Geun-hye (Bahk guhn-hae) was elected South Korean president, becoming the country's first female leader despite her past as the daughter of a divisive dictator.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2012 Dec 22, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid about $187,000 to free four South Korean workers and their local colleague abducted on Dec 17. Police learned of the kidnapping payment only after arresting one of three suspected kidnappers.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 25, North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened UN sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 29, South Korea’s outgoing Pres. Lee Myung-bak granted special pardons 55 people including political allies, a longtime friend and dozens of others convicted of corruption and other crimes.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.32)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Feb 25, Park Geun-hye began serving as South Korea's first female president and returned to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her dictator father.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Mar 14, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics unveiled its new Galaxy S4 smart-phone at an event in NYC.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.C5)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 30, North Korea warned Seoul that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Apr 1, South Korea said it will strike back quickly if the North stages any attack.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Apr 3, North Korea barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North.
(AP, 4/3/13)
2013 Apr 4, North Korea warned that its military has been cleared to wage an attack on the US using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons. South Korea's defense minister said North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, but he added that there are no signs that the North is preparing for a full-scale conflict.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Apr 5, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed two of its intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or US Pacific bases.
(AP, 4/5/13)
2013 Apr 6, North Korea’s Kaesong industrial complex, the last vestige of cooperation with the South, moved closer to paralysis as nearly 100 South Korean workers went home across a border that Pyongyang has closed in the return direction.
(AP, 4/6/13)
2013 Apr 8, North Korea said it will suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, pulling out more than 53,000 North Korean workers and moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 9, North Korea urged all foreign companies and tourists in South Korea to evacuate because it says the rival Koreas are on the eve of a nuclear war.
(AP, 4/9/13)
2013 Apr 10, South Korea's foreign minister told lawmakers that the prospect of a North Korean missile test is "considerably high," as Pyongyang calmly prepared to mark the April 15 birthday of its founder, historically a time when it seeks to draw the world's attention with dramatic displays of military power.
(AP, 4/10/13)
2013 Apr 16, North Korea issued new threats against South Korea, vowing "sledge-hammer blows" of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader.
(Reuters, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 18, North Korea demanded the lifting of UN sanctions and the end of US-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming talks meant to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 4/18/13)
2013 Apr 21, A South Korean news agency reported that North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch.
(Reuters, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 24, In the message to its Iranian retailers, Samsung said that it cannot provide access to the store, known as Samsung Apps, in Iran because of "legal barriers," effective May 22. It apologized to customers in emailed statement. The move was seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 Apr 26, Seoul said that it has decided to withdraw the roughly 175 South Koreans still at a jointly run factory complex in North Korea, raising a major question about the survival of the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 4/26/13)
2013 Apr 29, North Korea approved the withdrawal of most of the remaining South Korean personnel at a jointly run industrial park in the North, with a final seven set to stay behind to negotiate unpaid wages for North Korean workers.
(AP, 4/29/13)
2013 Apr 30, South Korean state prosecutors raided the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service to investigate accusations that the spy agency had used its agents and hired bloggers to influence the Dec 19 presidential elections.
(SFC, 5/1/13, p.A2)
2013 May 7, Pres. Obama met with South Korea’s new Pres. Park Geun-hye. Her visit marked the 60th anniversary of South Korea’s alliance with the US. She addressed both houses of Congress the next day.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.58)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 22, In South Korea a suicidal man, jumping to his death from the 11th floor of an apartment building, killed a 5-year-old girl by falling on her as she walked with her parents outside the building in Busan.
(AP, 5/23/13)
2013 May 28, South Korea said it has idled two nuclear power plants after finding that test results for crucial control cables were falsified in a new blow to an industry mired in a graft scandal and safety lapses. With the shutdown of the Shin-Kori No. 2 and Shin-Wolsong No. 1 reactors to replace cables, a total of 10 nuclear plants are now offline.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May, South Korea’s new chief of the state prosecution office urged an "extraordinary" push to collect $143.5 million from former President Chun Doo-hwan (82), who seized power in a 1979 army coup and ruled South Korea until early 1988.
(AP, 6/24/13)
2013 Jun 6, North and South Korea agreed to hold talks on reopening a jointly run factory complex and other cross-border issues, after months of deteriorating relations and a day before a US-China summit in which the North is expected to be a key topic.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 9, Government delegates from North and South Korea held preparatory talks at a "truce village" on their heavily armed border aimed at setting ground rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 11, South Korea said its first high-level talks in years with North Korea have been scrapped because of a stalemate over who will lead each delegation. The last minister-level meeting between the Koreas occurred in 2007.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jun 25, In South Korea major government and news media websites were shut down after anonymous hackers attacked them on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
(SFC, 6/26/13, p.A3)
2013 Jun 27, In China Pres. Xi Jinping and South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye called for a swift resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks after a summit that brought together Pyongyang's archrival and its biggest ally.
(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jul 4, North and South Korea agreed to hold talks aimed at reopening a jointly run factory park that was a rare source of cash for the North three weeks after their last attempt at dialogue collapsed in bickering over protocol.
(Reuters, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, Delegates from North and South Korea held talks on restarting a stalled joint factory park that had been a symbol of cooperation between the bitter rivals, but there was no word on whether any significant progress had been made as discussions went into the night.
(AP, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 6, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 arriving from South Korea crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport. 2 Chinese girls were killed and 70 people injured out of 290 passengers and 16 crew members on the Boeing 777. Another Chinese girl died in a SF hospital on July 12, becoming the 3rd fatality. SFO officials on the same day confirmed that one of the girtls who died on July 6 had been struck and run over by a fire truck.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.A1)(Reuters, 7/12/13)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.A1)
2013 Jul 7, North and South Korea agreed to take steps to reopen a jointly run industrial park, including facilities inspections, after the two rivals staged a marathon meeting lasting more than 16 hours to arrange details.
(Reuters, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 10, Talks between the rival Koreas aimed at restarting a stalled inter-Korean factory park ended with no breakthrough. Both sides agreed to meet again next week to discuss restoring what was once a rare symbol of cooperation between the archrivals.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, A South Korean court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. of Japan to pay $89,800 to each of four South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during the colonial from 1910 to 1945.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 11, North Korea withdrew offers for talks with South Korea on reunions of separated families and resuming tours to a mountain resort.
(AP, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 30, A South Korean court ruled that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries should pay compensation of $71,800 to each of five South Koreans for forced labor during the colonial period that ended with WWII.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 7, North Korea said it is lifting a ban on operations at a jointly run factory park shuttered since Pyongyang pulled out its 53,000 workers in April amid tensions with South Korea. The rivals agreed to meet next week for talks meant to restart the complex.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 11, Jeon Wook-Pyo (68), a South Korean man, escaped North Korea four decades after he was kidnapped by North Korea while fishing near the disputed Yellow Sea border. Jeon was among 25 fishermen aboard two boats that were seized by a North Korean navy ship on December 28, 1972.
(AFP, 9/13/13)
2013 Aug 14, North and South Korea agreed to restart the joint Kaesong industrial park after a series of talks on the fate of the last symbol of economic cooperation.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 28, In South Korea agents from the National Intelligence Service raided the homes and offices of an opposition lawmaker and other members of a far-left opposition. 3 people were detained on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
(SFC, 8/29/13, p.A5)
2013 Sep 4, South Korea's parliament voted overwhelmingly on to allow the arrest of Lee Seok-ki, one of its members accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government and introduce a North Korean-style regime. On Feb 17, 2014, Seok-ki was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(Reuters, 9/4/13)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.3)
2013 Sep 4, South Korea’s Samsung set the price of its new Galaxy Gear wristwatch at $299 with sales to begin Sep 25.
(SFC, 9/5/13, p.C3)
2013 Sep 5, North Korea agreed to restore a cross-border military hotline with South Korea.
(SFC, 9/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 6, South Korea extended a ban on Japanese fishery imports to a larger area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant due to growing concerns over radiation contamination.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 11, North and South Korea agreed to restart operations at a jointly run factory park that Pyongyang shut down in April during a torrent of threats, the latest sign of easing animosity between the rivals.
(AP, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 16, South Korea's military shot and killed a man who undertook a rare attempt to enter North Korea by floating across a river that runs near the heavily militarized border.
(Reuters, 9/16/13)
2013 Sep 21, North Korea ordered the indefinite postponement of a scheduled series of reunions for families divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, dealing a setback to months of efforts to improve ties between the Korean neighbors.
(Reuters, 9/21/13)
2013 Oct 25, North Korea repatriated six South Korean citizens and a corpse at a heavily defended border crossing.
(Reuters, 10/25/13)
2013 Nov 3, North Korea publicly executed around 80 people, many for watching smuggled South Korean TV shows. A South Korean newspaper reported the executions on Nov 11.
(AFP, 11/11/13)
2013 Nov 4, South Korea's spy agency said that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralyzing military electronic equipment south of the border.
(AFP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 7, North Korea's security agency said it has arrested a South Korean spy in Pyongyang who intended to rally anti-government forces, a claim that intelligence officials in Seoul quickly called ridiculous and groundless.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 16, In South Korea a helicopter belonging to LG Electronics crashed after its propeller clipped the side of a 38-story apartment building. Its 2 pilots were killed.
(SSFC, 11/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 28, In South Korea a "safety-related action" automatically shut down one of the country’s 23 nuclear reactors, bringing the tally of those closed to six and hiking the chances of power blackouts this winter.
(Reuters, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Dec 3, South Korean lawmakers said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to have dismissed Jang Song Thaek, a powerful uncle and a man key to his rise to power, from his posts.
(Reuters, 12/3/13)(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A3)
2013 Dec 4, The Green Climate Fund, designed as the UN’s most important funding body in the battle on climate change in developing nations, launched its headquarters in South Korea.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 8, South Korea said it has extended its air defense zone to partially overlap with a similar zone declared by China two weeks ago that has sharply raised regional tensions.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 12, Iraq signed a $1.1 billion deal to buy 24 multi-role light fighters from South Korea. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said it would deliver the T-50IQ, a variant of its T-50 supersonic aircraft, to Baghdad between 2015 and 2016.
(AFP, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 22, In South Korea hundreds of riot police stormed into a labor umbrella group's head office in a bid to arrest union leaders. They detained about 130 strikers and confederation members. Workers with the state-run Korea Railroad had walked off the job in protest against a decision to set up a unit to run a high-speed bullet train, which they say will lead to privatization and layoffs.
(Reuters, 12/23/13)
2013 Sheila Miyoshi Jager authored “Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea."
(Econ, 7/27/13, p.68)
2013 The South Korean film “A Wedding Invitation," made by a subsidiary of CJ Corp., became a hit. It was made for the Chinese market with Chinese actors but a Korean crew.
(SFC, 5/9/16, p.68)
2013 South Korea signed the Hague Adoption Convention, which says that children should preferably be adopted by families in their own country.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.31)
2013 South Korea began to pay child-care allowances and nursery-school fees to all parents regardless of income.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
2014 Jan 2, South Korea's military said it would fight a court ruling quashing its move to kick an officer candidate out of the elite Army Academy for having sex with his girlfriend while on leave.
(Reuters, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 8, South Korean prosecutors arrested an IT contractor for stealing the personal information of around 20m credit card holders.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2014 Jan 18, South Korea confirmed the outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu and said it would expand the culling of birds to a radius of 3-km (1.9 mile) around a duck farm.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 19, South Korean regulator Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed the full scale of personal information theft on more than 100 million South Korean credit cards. Some 20 million people were victims of data theft a three credit card companies.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)(SFC, 10/15/14, p.A5)
2014 Jan 19, In Libya unknown gunmen kidnapped Han Seok-woo, a South Korean trade official, in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 1/20/14)
2014 Jan 20, In South Korea the heads of three big credit card firms apologized and resigned over the largest-ever thefts of customer data.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2014 Jan 24, North Korea proposed reunions of families separated since the Korean War six decades ago, continuing its latest campaign of reconciliation that included a call for South Korea and the United States to cancel joint military drills.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Feb 5, North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold their first reunions in more than three years of families divided by the Korean War.
(SFC, 2/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 6, North Korea threatened to cancel reunions of Korean War-divided families because of upcoming US-South Korean military drills and accused the United States of raising tensions by flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers near the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 12, North Korea and South Korea held their first high-level talks in Panmunjom, their first in seven years.
(SSFC, 2/16/14, p.A6)
2014 Feb 14, North and South Korea agreed in a rare high-level meeting to stop insulting each other and to go ahead with planned reunions of Korean War-divided families next week despite a dispute over upcoming US-South Korean military drills.
(AP, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 17, In South Korea at least 10 people were killed and 50 more feared trapped after the Manua Ocean Resort auditorium collapsed under heavy snow in the city of Gyeongju. Some 560 students from Busan Univ. Foreign Studies had gathered there for a 2-day freshman orientation.
(AFP, 2/17/14)(SFC, 2/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 20, In North Korea dozens of elderly North and South Koreans separated for six decades reunited at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort, weeping and embracing in a rush of words and emotion.
(AP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 27, In North Korea Kim Jung Wook, a South Korean Baptist missionary, told reporters he is sorry for his “anti-state" crimes and appealed to North Korean authorities to show him mercy by releasing him from their custody. He was arrested over four months ago for allegedly trying to establish underground Christian churches.
(AP, 2/27/14)(SFC, 2/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 21, In South Korea the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a curvy futuristic $450 million building meant to remake Seoul into a global design capital, opened to the public after years of debate about its impact on a historic city precinct. It was designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met to discuss North Korea's security threat.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, South Korea's military seized a North Korean fishing boat that it said had crossed a disputed maritime border after ignoring warnings to retreat amid growing tension between the two sides.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, South Korea formally approved a request from women rights activists, including one "comfort woman", to meet North Korean counterparts at a conference on Japan's wartime use of sex slaves.
(AFP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 31, North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire in disputed waters in an apparent new round of saber-rattling by Pyongyang during annual US-South Korean military exercises.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Apr 4, South Korean rescuers recovered the bodies of two North Korean sailors, pulled three survivors and were searching for 11 others missing after their cargo ship sank off South Korea's coast. The Mongolian-flagged ship was carrying 16 North Korean crew members when it sent a distress signal in international waters about 130 km (80 miles) south of the southern port city of Yeosu.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 15, South Korean police charged a man for the murder of his 2-year-old son after he confessed to suffocating the child so he could leave the house to go back to playing games at an Internet cafe.
(Reuters, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 16, In South Korea some 274 people were missing after the sinking of the Sewol passenger ferry in the Yellow Sea. It carried 475 passengers and crew, mostly high school students from Danwon High School in Ansan, on an overnight trip to Jeju island. Only 174 were rescued. On July 18 the confirmed death toll was 294 with 10 still missing. A body recovered on Oct 28 raised the toll to 295.
(AP, 4/16/14)(AP, 4/17/14)(SSFC, 4/20/14, p.A4)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.37)(AFP, 7/18/14)(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Apr 17, In South Korea Kang Min-gyu (52), the vice-principal of a South Korean high school who accompanied hundreds of pupils on a ferry that capsized a day earlier, committed suicide.
(Reuters, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 18, South Korean prosecutors sought arrest warrants for the captain, and two crew members of the ferry that capsized two days before with hundreds of children on board. Lee Joon-Seok and most of his 28 crew managed to escape the ferry.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 19, In South Korea Captain Lee Joon-seok (68) and two crew members of the Sewol ferry that capsized on April 16 were arrested. The confirmed death toll rose to 32 with some 270 people still missing.
(AP, 4/19/14)
2014 Apr 22, In South Korea the confirmed death toll from the April 16 disaster off the southern coast reached 113 with about 190 people were still missing.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, In South Korea the confirmed death toll from the April 16 disaster off the southern coast reached 156 with about 150 people were still missing.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 25, President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned Pyongyang that it could face tougher sanctions if it follows through with threats to launch a fourth nuclear test.
(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 27, South Korea's PM Chung Hong-won resigned over the government's handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry Sewol, which sank April 16.
(AP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr, In South Korea private first-class Yoon Seung-ju (21) died in a hazing incident. In Sep military prosecutors charged four soldiers with homicide. On Oct 30 six soldiers were sentenced to up to 45 years in prison for bullying and beating their subordinate.
(AP, 9/2/14)(AP, 10/30/14)
2014 May 2, South Korea suffered its second serious transport accident in just over two weeks when a subway train in the capital, Seoul, crashed into a train at a station, injuring 200 people although no one was killed.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 3, South Korea’s confirmed death toll from the April 16 ferry disaster reached 236 with 66 people were still missing.
(AFP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 5, In South Korea divers retrieved 12 more bodies from the Sewol ferry, raising the death toll to 260 with 42 people still missing.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 6, In South Korea a civilian diver involved in searches for dozens of missing people from the April 16 Sewol ferry disaster died. Other divers picked up efforts to retrieve more bodies from the sunken ship.
(AP, 5/6/14)
2014 May 7, South Korea’s coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol — not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 9, South Korean police arrested Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. His company owns the Sewol ferry that sank and left more than 300 people dead or missing, and authorities worried he may destroy evidence.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 14, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. apologized and promised compensation to chip factory workers who suffered cancers linked to chemical exposure, a rare win for families and activists seven years after the death of a 23-year-old employee from leukemia galvanized a movement to hold the company to account.
(AP, 5/14/14)
2014 May 19, South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye formally apologized for the April 16 ferry disaster that killed about 300 people, mostly school children, and said she would dismantle the coast guard for failing in its duties.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)
2014 May 21, South Korea offered a $50,000 reward for information about Yoo Byung-eun (73), a mysterious missing billionaire, who authorities say owns a ferry that sank last April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. Yoo faced allegations of tax evasion, embezzlement and professional negligence.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 22, North and South Korean warships exchanged artillery fire in disputed waters off the western coast, in the latest sign of rising animosity between the bitter rivals in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/14)
2014 May 26, South Korea and China agreed recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must not conduct a nuclear test, after a meeting of their top diplomats in Seoul.
(Reuters, 5/26/14)
2014 May 28, In South Korea a fire, believed set by a dementia patient (81), blazed through a ward of Hyosarang Hospital for the elderly in Jangseong county and killed 22 people, mostly from smoke inhalation. On Nov 21 the dementia patient (81) was convicted of arson and manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/28/14)(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 May 30, South Korean pop star Psy and his irrepressible "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to surpass 2 billion views, crossing the mark around shortly before midnight EDT.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 5, In South Korea a victim from the April 16 sunken Sewol ferry was retrieved in waters 40 km (25 miles) from the capsized vessel, raising the death toll to 289.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 11, Thousands of South Korean police and prosecutors raided a sprawling religious compound for a 2nd time in their search for Yoo Byung-un, an elderly businessman linked to the April 16 Sewol ferry disaster.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 12, Thousands of South Korean police raided the compound of a splinter religious group for the second day in a row as part of a manhunt for a fugitive businessman wanted over April's ferry disaster.
(AFP, 6/12/14)
2014 Jun 12, South Korean police found the body of fugitive billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-un (73) in an agricultural field in the southern South Korean city of Suncheon. He was sought over April's ferry disaster that left more than 300 people dead or missing. The discovery was not made public until July 22 following DNA confirmation.
(AP, 7/22/14)(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jun 13, South Korea's Pres. Park Geun-hye replaced seven Cabinet members in an apparent bid to win back sagging public trust in her administration after April's ferry disaster.
(AP, 6/13/14)
2014 Jun 21, A South Korean soldier was at large after killing 5 comrades and wounding another five at the border with North Korea.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, South Korean troops exchanged fire with a runaway soldier who was surrounded in a forest after he killed five comrades near his North Korea border outpost, and brought in his parents to persuade him to surrender.
(AP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 23, In South Korea a massive manhunt ended when a 22-year-old sergeant, surnamed Yim, shot himself in the upper left chest as his father and brother approached, pleading with him to surrender. Yim was hospitalized. He had killed 5 comrades on June 21 near his North Korea border outpost. On Feb 3, 2015, Yim was sentenced to death.
(AP, 6/23/14)(AP, 2/3/15)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping began a two-day visit to Seoul. The leaders of China and South Korea simultaneously snubbed North Korea, bolstered their already booming trade relationship and gave the US and Japan a look at Beijing's growing influence south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, In South Korea the display manufacturing unit of Samsung Electronics Co. said it secured approval from Vietnam to build a $1 billion factory in the Southeast Asian country.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 9, In France Yoo Somena, daughter of billionaire Yoo Byung-eun, faced extradition to South Korea based on suspicions of embezzling $8 million between 2004 and 2013. Yoo Byung-eun is the South Korean fugitive businessman believed linked to a deadly April ferry disaster.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 17, In South Korea a firefighting helicopter crashed near an apartment complex and school in the southern city of Gwangju, killing five.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Myanmar more than 700 workers protested in front of the South Korean Embassy to demand officials help them after a Korean-owned factory closed without paying their wages.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 25, South Korean police arrested Yoo Dae-gyun, the son of recently deceased Yoo Byung-eun, owner of the April 16 ferry disaster.
(SFC, 7/26/14, p.A3)
2014 Aug 3, Tropical Storm Nakri made landfall on South Korea and left at least 10 people dead.
(www.earthweek.com/2014/ew140808/ew140808e.html)
2014 Aug 6, China executed two South Koreans, convicted of smuggling 14 kg (30 lb) of methamphetamines from North Korea in 2010 and 2011, and planned to soon execute a third.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 9, Japan and South Korea vowed to "deepen communication" in the future during a rare meeting in Myanmar ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 11, South Korea said it would provide $13.3 million in funding for UN humanitarian projects in North Korea -- its second indirect aid package for the North in a month.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 13, At the Int’l. Congress of mathematicians in South Korea, Stanford Prof. Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born mathematician, became the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal for her work in understanding the mathematical symmetry of curved surfaces and saddle-shaped spaces.
(SFC, 8/14/14, p.D1)
2014 Aug 14, South Korea’s Korean Air Lines Co. said will suspend flights to Kenya in a measure to prevent the spread of Ebola.
(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 14, Pope Francis arrived in South Korea for a 5-day visit and left the airport in a compact black Kia that many South Koreans would consider too humble a conveyance for a globally powerful figure. He called for renewed efforts to forge peace on the war-divided Korean Peninsula and for both sides to avoid "fruitless" criticisms and shows of force.
(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs killed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Joseon Dynasty.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China, saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in dialogue.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 29, A South Korea-based pageant said that a Myanmar beauty queen, who was stripped of her title for allegedly being rude and dishonest, has run off with the $100,000 jeweled crown. On Sep 2 May Myat Noe (16) said she won't return her bejeweled crown until pageant organizers apologize for calling her a liar and a thief.
(AP, 8/29/14)(AP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, South Korea said it would create a joint military unit with the US, as a report suggested the contingent would target North Korea's weapons of mass destruction if a full-scale conflict broke out.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, North Korea said it will send back a South Korean man who entered the North illegally. Kim Sang-geun reportedly entered North Korea through a third country after having unspecified difficulties living in the South.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Sep 7, In South Korea Kwon Ri-sae (23) died at a hospital in Suwon, just south of Seoul. She was the 2nd Ladies' Code band member to die following a car accident on Sep 3.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 16, South Korean border guards arrested an American man who they believe was attempting to swim across a river to rival North Korea.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, In South Korea the opening ceremony for the Asian Games was held in in Incheon. 45 nations and regions participated in the events.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 21, In South Korea a small group of activists launched tens of thousands of leaflets by helium balloon, just days after the North sent a letter to the presidential office demanding such exercises be halted.
(AFP, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 24, In South Korea Qatari basketballers forfeited a women's match against Mongolia and considered withdrawing from the Asian Games competition after being refused permission to wear a hijab.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, South Korea said it will buy 40 F-35A fighter jets from Lockheed Martin for about $7 billion.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 4, North Korea's presumptive No. 2 and other members of Pyongyang's inner circle met with South Korean officials in Seoul at the close of the Asian Games in the rivals' highest level face-to-face talks in five years.
(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 8, South Korean prosecutors indicted Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato for defamation of President Park Geun-hye over an article he wrote about her personal life and whereabouts on April 3, the day of a deadly ferry disaster. On Dec 17, 2015, a Seoul court cleared Kato of the charges.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(SSFC, 12/20/15, p.A4)
2014 Oct 10, North and South Korea traded machine-gun and rifle fire after South Korean activists released anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons across the border.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 13, South Korean messaging app Kakao Talk said it will stop fully cooperating with authorities seeking to access private messages as part of a government crackdown on online criticism.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 15, The first military talks between North and South Korea in more than three years ended with no agreement, with the rivals failing to narrow their differences on how to ease animosity following two shooting incidents last week.
(AP, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 17, In South Korea 16 people were killed at a open-air pop concert where the group 4Minute was performing when the cover of a ventilation shaft they were standing on gave way. The man involved in planning the pop concert was found dead on Oct 18 in an apparent suicide.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 19, North and South Korean troops exchanged gunfire along their fortified border in the second such shooting in less than 10 days.
(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 25, South Korean activists launched balloons to send leaflets to North Korea with messages critical of its leader, ignoring threats of military action from Pyongyang and a plea by Seoul not to jeopardize efforts to improve ties with the North.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Nov 5, A South Korean court convicted three relatives of the sunken Sewol ferry's owner and 13 other associates for corruption, about four months after the tycoon was found dead on the run. Yoo Dae-kyoon (43), the oldest son of ferry owner Yoo Byung-eun, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 11/5/14)(SFC, 11/6/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 7, South Korea's National Assembly approved plans to disband the coast guard in the wake of criticism over its failure to rescue hundreds of passengers during the sinking of a ferry in April.
(AP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 10, South Korea said it has agreed to sign a free trade deal with China that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades but won't include rice or autos.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 11, In South Korea the captain of the Sewol ferry that capsized in April killing 304 passengers was jailed for 36 years after a court found him guilty of negligence, but was acquitted of homicide. The court convicted the ship's chief engineer of homicide for not aiding two injured fellow crew members and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. 13 surviving crew members of the ferry were found guilty of various charges, including negligence, and handed down prison terms ranging from five to 20 years.
(Reuters, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 12, South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries said it had signed a $1.94 billion deal to build offshore oil and gas processing platforms in the United Arab Emirates.
(AFP, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 20, A South Korean court sentenced Kim Han-sik (71), president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, to 10 years in prison over the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed more than 300 people, mostly high school students. On May 12 an appeals court reduced the sentence to seven years.
(AP, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A3)
2014 Nov 25, Japanese police arrested four South Korean men at a harbor where ferries depart for Busan on suspicion of stealing an ancient Buddha statue. A 5th man was arrested the next day. The stolen "Birth of Buddha" statue dates to sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Dec 1, Rescuers searched for more than 50 people missing after a South Korean fishing ship they were working on sank amid high waves in the freezing waters of the Bering Sea. Seven fishermen were rescued. The crew included 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector. After two day only 12 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 12/1/14)(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 24, South Korean prosecutors brought charges against the founder and CEO of controversial smartphone taxi app Uber for operating an illegal cab service, the latest roadblock for the California-based firm.
(AFP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 26, In South Korea 3 workers died after apparently inhaling toxic gas at a construction site for a nuclear plant being built by South Korea's monopoly nuclear power company.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 30, A South Korean court approved the arrest of Cho Hyun-ah (40), the daughter of Korean Air Lines’ chairman and a former Korean Air Lines Co. executive, who delayed a Dec 5 flight over a bag of macadamia nuts.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Euny Hong authored “the Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World through Pop Culture."
(Econ, 8/9/14, p.69)
2014 In South Korea Han Sang-deok was freed by police after 20 years working without pay on a Sinui island salt farm. Dozens of disabled men were liberated this year from salt farms on remote islands in the southwest. A months-long investigation by The Associated Press found that slavery still thrives.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2014 South Korea introduced its Basic Pension Scheme.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korean military's "cyber army" has boosted its numbers to 6,000 troops.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker, said it plans to spend 81 trillion won ($73.7 billion) over the next four years on factories, research and a new headquarters.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 14, South Korean prosecutors arrested leftist activist Hwang Sun in Seoul for allegedly praising archrival North Korea.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 2, In South Korea former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir: "President's Time" was published. Lee wrote that late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large shipments of food and fertilizer as a condition of the talks.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 9, Former South Korean spy chief Won Sei-hoon was sent to prison for three years after being found guilty of ordering an illicit online campaign to support then-ruling party candidate and current President Park Geun-hye ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Korea an onboard tantrum dubbed "nut rage" culminated in a one-year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 16, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's appointment of Lee Wan Koo in a 148-128 vote.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 26, South Korea’s Constitutional court struck down a 62-year-old law that made adultery an offense punishable by up to two years in prison.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Mar 3, South Korea passed the "Anti-corruption and Conflicts of Interest Act," also known as the Kim Young-ran act after the then-chairperson of the 2012 Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr5kdv7)
2015 Mar 5, In South Korea a knife attack by Kim Ki-jong (55), an anti-US protester screaming demands for uniting North and South Korea, injured US ambassador Mark Lippert. The slashing left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves. In September Kim Ki-jong was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)(SFC, 9/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Apr 12, In Libya gunmen opened fire early today at the local guards of the South Korean Embassy in Tripoli, killing one of them as well as a civilian who was in the area.
(AP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 14, Japan and South Korea held their first high-level security talks in more than five years despite simmering tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 22, South Korea said it has reached agreement with Washington on revisions to the 41-year-old treaty that governs its commercial nuclear activities.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, North Korea caught Joo Won-moon (21), a South Korean student at NYU, crossing its border from the Chinese side of the Yalu River. He later said that he had intended to be arrested and hoped to bring about better relations between North and South Korea.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 24, In South Korea thousands of anti-government protesters marched in cities across the country, denouncing the labor policies of the increasingly unpopular President Park Geun-hye.
(AP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, In South Korea thousands marched in Seoul for the second straight day to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
(AP, 4/25/15)
2015 Apr 27, South Korea's Pres. Park Geun-hye accepted the resignation of PM Lee Wan Koo over a bribery scandal. He has been at the heart of a corruption scandal involving a dead businessman and other high-profile figures.
(AP, 4/27/15)
2015 May 1, Thousands of South Koreans marched in Seoul for a third week to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
(AP, 5/1/15)
2015 May 13, In South Korea a soldier (24) shot fellow reservists at a mandatory training session in Seoul, killing 2 and injuring two others before killing himself.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 18, South Korea and India agreed to step up defense cooperation while South Korea pledged $10 billion (6.4 billion pounds) in finance for infrastructure projects as Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived for a visit.
(Reuters, 5/18/15)
2015 May 21, South Korea a third case of MERS, a respiratory virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 24, A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea in what they said was a symbolic act for peace.
(Reuters, 5/24/15)
2015 May 29, South Korea confirmed five MERS cases, bringing the total number of patients infected with the potentially deadly virus to 12, including a man who defied a quarantine protocol and travelled to China.
(AFP, 5/29/15)
2015 May, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea had executed its defense chief by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korea and China signed a free trade deal that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korean health officials said more than 680 people are being isolated after having contact with patients infected with the MERS virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 2, South Korea confirmed the country's first two deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome as it fights to contain the spread of the virus.
(AP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 4, South Korea confirmed a third death from MERS. 1,164 schools and kindergartens were reported to be temporarily shut down.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, South Korea confirmed nine more cases of the MERS virus, which has killed four people, but said it did not represent a spread of the outbreak as the infected were already in quarantine.
(AFP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 6, At the finals for the DARPA Robotic Challenge in Pomona, Ca., a robot named Hubo, developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, (KAIST) won the $2 million first place prize.
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.77)
2015 Jun 7, South Korea bowed to public pressure and identified 24 health facilities where infections took place or MERS patients visited. It reported 14 confirmed new cases of MERS and a 5th death.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, South Korea reported its seventh death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the government said it hoped to end the crisis this week. Eight new infections brought the total number of cases to 95.
(AFP, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, In South Korea Bank of Korea policymakers cut the policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.5 percent, the second rate cut this year.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 11, South Korea reported a 10th death from the MERS virus. Officials said they believe the disease has peaked.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, In South Korea 3 MERS patients in their 70s died, raising the country's number of MERS-related deaths to 13. Authorities temporarily closed two hospitals amid persistent fears over the MERS virus outbreak.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 13, South Korea recorded its 14th death from the MERS virus and a dozen new infections.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new MERS cases, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died. The Samsung Medical Center in Seoul said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS after more than 70 cases were traced to it.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, In South Korea the death toll in the MERS outbreak increased to 19 even as schools reopened and people recovered from the virus.
(AP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 15, A North Korean soldier in his late teens defected to South Korea walking across their shared border.
(SFC, 6/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 18, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's choice for prime minister. The National Assembly approved the appointment of Hwang Kyo-ahn by a vote of 156-120.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, In South Korea the death toll from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) increased to 23.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 21, South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
(Reuters, 6/21/15)
2015 Jun 23, North Korea's highest court sentenced two South Koreans accused of spying to hard labor for life.
(Reuters, 6/23/15)
2015 Jul 1, In northeastern China a bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge, killing 7 South Koreans and 2 Chinese.
(AP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 2, South Korea reported two new cases of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, after four days in which no cases were spotted.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 3, In South Korea an explosion killed 6 workers at a chemical plant run by Hanwha Chemical Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 4, South Korea found a North Korean ship adrift and sinking with 5 sailors near the island of Ulleungdo off of South Korea’s northeastern coast. On July 7 South Korea said three of the sailors had defected to South Korea.
(SFC, 7/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 5, A dramatic breach at Italian surveillance company Hacking Team soon laid bare the details of government cyberattacks worldwide. Hacking Team's spyware was used by a total of 97 intelligence or investigative agencies in 35 countries, according to South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Lee Byoung Ho, who explained himself to lawmakers on July 14 after it became clear his organization was among the Milan-based company's clients.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 9, South Korean officials said young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a "reign of terror" that far exceeds the bloodshed of his dictator father's early rule.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 14, South Korea sent back two North Korean fishermen who were rescued from South Korean waters but said it would not return three others who requested asylum.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 24, South Korea’s National Assembly passed an amended criminal procedure law, removing a 25-year statute of limitations on first-degree murder.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 28, South Korea said it is now virtually free of the deadly MERS virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly 200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
(AP, 7/28/15)
2015 Aug 10, South Korea restarted propaganda broadcasts across the border with rival North Korea for the first time in 11 years in retaliation for the North allegedly planting land mines last week that maimed two South Korean soldiers.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 12, In South Korea Choi Hyun-yeol (80) set himself on fire during a protest calling for Japan to apologize for forcing Korean girls and women to work in military brothels during World War II. He was in critical condition with burns to his neck, face, and upper torso.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, A South Korean media report said Choe Yong Gon (63), North Korea's vice premier, was executed by firing squad this year after showing discontent with the policies of the country's leader Kim Jong Un.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 20, South Korea fired tens of artillery rounds toward North Korea after the North launched shells to protest South Korea's anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the border.
(Reuters, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 21, North and South Korea appeared headed toward another clash, as Seoul refused an ultimatum that it halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Aug 22 afternoon or face military action, and North Korea said its troops were on a war footing.
(Reuters, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, North Korea and South Korea held their first high-level talks in nearly a year at a border village to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, North and South Korea resumed top-level talks on avoiding a threatened military clash, even as Seoul accused Pyongyang of undermining the process with provocative naval and land deployments.
(AFP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded that North Korea apologize over recent landmine blasts, even as the bitter rivals held marathon talks to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula back to the brink of armed conflict.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Aug 25, North and South Korea agreed early today to end a military standoff that sparked an exchange of artillery fire and had ratcheted up tension on one of the world's most heavily-fortified borders.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Sep 5, A South Korean fishing charter boat capsized leaving at least 10 people dead and eight missing. The 9.77-ton Dolphin went missing off the southwest coast near the island of Chuja. 3 survivors were rescued the next day.
(AFP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 7, North and South Korea started talks at a border village on resuming the reunions of families separated by the Korean War.
(AP, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 24, South Korea-based Samsung Semiconductor dedicated its new 1.1 million-sq.-foot North American headquarters in San Jose, Ca.
(SFC, 9/26/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 10, In South Korea Iranian director Hadi Mohaghegh's "Immortal" and "Walnut Tree" from Kazakhstan's Yerlan Nurmukhambetov were named the winners of the New Currents award for first- and second-time filmmakers at the 20th Busan International Film Festival.
(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 17, It was reported that hundreds of South Korean scholars have declared they are boycotting the writing of state-issued history textbooks out of concern that that they will teach distorted views on the country's recent past.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 20, Korean families, separated by the Korean War, began to reunite at the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A4)(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 24, Hundreds of S. Koreans crossed the border to North Korea for the last set of reunions this year. In the first round of reunions earlier in the week, about 390 South Koreans traveled to the resort to meet with 180 North Korean relatives.
(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 31, South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to discuss trade issues, a day before their three-way summit with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe that aims to repair relations strained by historical and territorial matters.
(AP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 4, A South Korean government commission said that the remains of nearly 2,750 people, believed to be Koreans who were forced to work in Japan in the WWII era, have been found.
(SFC, 11/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 13, In South Korea eight men took the government to court after spending years as slaves on salt farms on rural islands off the southwest coast. Some were enslaved for as many as twenty years.
(SFC, 11/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 14, In South Korea tens of thousands marched in central Seoul with diverse grievances against the government. Police detained at least 50 people.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 22, Kim Young-sam (b.1927), former president of South Korea (1993-1998), died in Seoul.
(SFC, 11/23/15, p.C4)
2015 Nov 23, In South Korea a US military helicopter crashed during a routine training mission, killing both pilots on board.
(AP, 11/23/15)
2015 Nov 25, A new nuclear treaty with the United States governing South Korea's commercial nuclear activities during the next 20 years went into effect. The treaty, which replaces a previous accord reached in 1972, opens the possibility of South Korea gaining the ability to enrich uranium to produce non-weapons-grade nuclear fuel depending on future negotiations with the United States.
(AP, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 26, North and South Korean officials met for talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom after the two sides signed an agreement in which Pyongyang expressed regret over landmine blasts near the border that wounded two South Korean soldiers.
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Dec 5, Thousands of South Koreans, many wearing masks, marched in Seoul against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 10, South Korean police detained Han Sang-gyun, the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, for his alleged involvement in organizing antigovernment protests that turned violent last month. Sang-gyun had been holed up in a Buddhist temple for a month.
(SFC, 12/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 10, German authorities said five South Koreans have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a relative in an exorcism ritual attempting to "expel a demon" at a Frankfurt hotel. On Feb 20, 2017, the five South Koreans were convicted. The main defendant was sentenced to six years in prison. Four others were given suspended sentences of between 18 months and two years.
(AP, 12/10/15)(AP, 2/20/17)
2015 Dec 12, The first high-level talks between North and South Korea since an August agreement to end an armed confrontation across their border ended in Kaesong inconclusively.
(Reuters, 12/12/15)(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 28, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement to resolve the issue of "comfort women", as those who were forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels were euphemistically known, which has long plagued ties between the neighbors.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 Blaine Harden authored “The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom." (see South Korea Sep 21, 1953).
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.78)
2015 South Korea’s Supreme Court conferred official status to a migrant workers’ union.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.34)
Go to South Korea 2016
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3600 BC In 2012 South Korean archaeologist Cho Mi-soon said that the nation’s archeological agency has found the remains of a farming field from the Neolithic period on South Korea's east coast and that the site may date to about this time.
(AP, 6/27/12)
2333 BC 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)
400 BC Korean farmers about this time brought rice to Japan.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.66)
400 BC- 250 AD 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)
171BC There was a major wave of migration to Japan from the Korean Peninsula. The migration of other peoples from mainland Asia around this time brought metal tools, rice and new farming techniques. Computer modeling in 2011 showed that the migration also had significant impact on linguistic development.
(AP, 5/5/11)
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)
49AD 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)
900-1000 The Korean rice wine Makgeolli, once known as "farmer drink", dates back at least this time. Its popularity waned in the early 1960s when the government restricted the use of rice for making alcohol in order to combat rice shortages. In 2012 South Korea's Baesangmyun Brewery announced that a brewery in Chicago will open to produce the drink.
(AFP, 2/5/12)
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)
946 Mount Paektu, a volcano straddling the border between North Korea and China, erupted with apocalyptic fire and fury in what scientists later considered one of the five largest volcanic events in human history. It ejected enough material to bury Greater London to a depth of 60 meters (200 feet), and caused temporary climate change in the region.
(AFP, 9/19/19)
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)
1241 Dec, The Great Khan Ogedei died after completing the Mongol conquest of China and Korea. In April the Mongols routed the armies of Poles, Germans, and Hungarians, at Liegnitz and Mohi, within easy distance of Vienna. Only the death of Ogedei stopped their advance into Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/yxd5o9vj)(V.D.-H.K.p.169)
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 (Joseon 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)(AP, 4/14/11)
1392-1910 The Choson Dynasty ruled over Korea. [the article is about pojagi, Korean wrapping cloth]
(Hem., Oct. '95, p.72)(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A9)
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)
1425 Korean King Sejong: "I am neither virtuous, nor skillful at governing. There will definitely be times when I do not act upon the heavens' wishes. So look hard for my flaws and make me answer to their reprimands."
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.34)
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 known as hangul, created under the aegis of King Sejong, was first published. This day was later made a national holiday.
(AP, 10/9/07)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.40)
1450 Apr 8, Korean King Sejong (b.1397), the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty (1418-1450), died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_the_Great)
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)
1570 Yi Hwang (b.1501) Korean philosopher and writer, died. He was one of the two most prominent Korean Confucian scholars of the Joseon Dynasty. He established the Yeongnam School and set up the Dosan Seowon, a private Confucian academy. His image later graced South Korea's 1,000-won bill.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Hwang)(Econ., 1/2/21, p.27)
1584 Yulgok (b.1536), a Korean Confucian scholar, died. South Korea later celebrated his memory on a 5,000-won note. His mother appeared on a 50,000-won note.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.9)
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 May 23, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an army to invade Korea after Korea refused to help him invade China. The initial Imjin invasion was followed by a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula after a military stalemate in Korea's southern coastal provinces.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(http://tinyurl.com/gw7u8wm)
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)
1597 Oct 26, Korea’s Admiral Yi Sun-shin (Yi Sun sin), with a fleet of 13 ships, beat back the Japanese Navy, with a fleet of hundreds of ships, at the Battle of Myeongnyang. In 2014 the South Korean film “Roaring Currents," a depiction of the battle, was released and became the country’s most popular film of all time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang)(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
1676 Jeong Seon (d.1759), Korean landscape painter, was born.
(www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/10/148_51861.html)
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. Hyegyōnggung Hong Ssi later authored her memoir “Hanjungnok."
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.79)(www.financial-book-review.com)
1791-1888 In Korea 124 Catholics were executed during this period under the Joseon Dynasty, which tried to shut off the Korean Peninsula off from Western influence. They were canonized as saints in 1984 during a visit by Pope John Paul II.
(Econ, 7/26/14, p.A7)
1808 Yi Eung-nok, Korean court painter, was born.
(SFC, 3/11/03, p.D1)
1846 In Korea Kim Tae-gon (25), the country’s first Catholic priest, was beheaded for attempting to help foreign missionaries enter the country. He was canonized in 1984.
(SFC, 8/13/14, p.A7)
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)
1866 French troops took away hundreds of Korean manuscripts and set fire to 5,000 more when they raided a royal library on an island off Korea's west coast. In 2011 the first batch of the looted Korean royal books were returned home.
(AP, 4/14/11)
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)
1898 Isabella Bird Bishop (1831-1904), English explorer, writer, and natural historian, published her 2-volume work “Korea and Her Neighbors."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird)(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.10)
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 May 29, The Russian ship Dmitrii Donskoi was scuttled off an eastern Korean island after the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese war. In 2018 a South Korean company claimed to have found the sunken warship. The company speculated about 200 tons of gold bars and coins worth 150 trillion won ($132 billion) would still likely be aboard the ship.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Dmitrii_Donskoi)(AP, 7/19/18)
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 nationalist Chang Ahn Gun (aka Ahn Jung-geun).
(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/INV_JED/ITO_HIROBUMI_PRINCE_1841_1909_.html)(Econ, 11/23/13, p.48)
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. 33 Koreans gathered in a local restaurant to read a declaration of independence that ignited a series of demonstrations against Japanese occupation. The March 1st movement led millions of Koreans to take to the streets to protest against Japanese rule. Thousands were killed and many ended up in Keijo’s Seodaemun prison.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.M3)(Econ, 8/15/15, p.34)
1923 Sep, In Japan an orgy of opportunistic anti-Korean slaughter followed the Sep 1 Great Kanto earthquake.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.59)
1925 Korea’s first communist party was founded.
(Econ, 10/3/15, p.42)
1937 Korean guerrillas allegedly led by Kim Il Sung clashed with Japanese colonizer in the Battle of Bocheonbo.
(WSJ, 1/14/03, p.A10)
1938 Samsung began as provincial vegetable and dried-fish shop. By 2011 it had swelled into a network of 83 companies accounting for 13% of South Korea’s exports. In 2020 Geoffrey Cain authored "Samsung Rising."
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.14)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.56)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands, encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII. After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some 4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including 17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile Of Hell."
(AP, 11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07, p.72)
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)
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)
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 South Korea adopted legislation to punish anyone praising North Korea with up to seven years in prison.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.39)
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)
1948 South Korean Shin Kyuk-Ho founded Lotte Co. Ltd. in Tokyo. He expanded Lotte to his home country with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3, 1967 and built the company into a sprawling giant that by 2017 had dozens of units focused on food, retail and hotels in South Korea and Japan.
(AFP, 12/22/17)
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. Millions died in the three-year conflict, with Seoul's defence ministry putting military fatalities at 520,000 North Koreans, 137,000 Southern troops and 37,000 Americans. 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)(AFP, 6/24/20)
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 South Korean 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. In 2009 a government commission said South Korean soldiers and police executed nearly 5,000 citizens during the early months of the 1950-53 Korean War, fearing they could collaborate with invading North Korean troops.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A19)(WSJ, 6/5/00, p.A32)(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 11/26/09)
1950 Jul 11, In South Korea twin US orphans, John and George Krebs of Illinois, were among those killed during a battle in Chochiwon. John was initially reported missing. In 2019 John Krebs was buried next to his brother in Illinois after his remains were identified in December 2018.
(AP, 5/18/19)
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 1, USSR Communist forces introduced the MiG-15 to the Korean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah)
1950 Nov 8, The first air-to-air combat between fighter jets took place during an attack on the Sinuiju bridges near the mouth of the Yalu River, when a US Air Force F-80C belonging to the 16th Fighter Squadron encountered a MiG-15.
(http://tinyurl.com/y5tnkhgb)(The National Interest, 8/4/19)
1950 Nov 9, The first jet-Vs-jet victory in history was scored by Lt. Cdr. William T. Amen, the commanding officer of VF-111 Sundowners in another attack against the Sinuiju bridges, this time conducted by the US Navy aircraft launched from the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) aircraft carrier. Amen downed a MiG-15 flown by Capt. Mikhail Grachev.
(http://tinyurl.com/y5tnkhgb)(The National Interest, 8/4/19)
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. Over the next two weeks Mao Zedong's peasant army drove an army of 350,000 American soldiers and marines and their Korean allies the length of North Korea to hasty evacuation by land and sea.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(Econ., 12/12/20, p.34)
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, During the Korean War private first-class Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (1929-2016) held off an enemy regiment single-handedly and safeguarded his comrades from a live grenade during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. In 1952 Pres. Harry S. Truman awarded him a Medal of Honor.
(SSFC, 4/17/16, p.C2)
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, In Korea 1st Lt. Ralph Puckett helped the 8th US Army Ranger Company secure Hill 205 near Unsan against on overwhelming Chinese attack. Puckett drew fire so that Rangers could find and destroy enemy positions. Puckett was wounded in the operation. In 2021 he received the Medal of Honor.
(SFC, 5/22/21, p.A5)
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 killed 2.5 million people, with over 2 million of them civilians. 1.2 million soldiers were killed including 34,000 Americans. No peace treaty was ever signed. About 1.7 million Americans were involved and there was an estimated 3 mil casualties including 36,914 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."
(https://tinyurl.com/yxsk28xa)(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)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.40)
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 22, US Navy pilot Kenneth Schechter (d.2013) was among a group of pilots ordered to bomb North Korean rail and truck lines. Schechter’s plane was hit and he was blinded, but managed to make a landing guided by group leader Lt. Howard Thayer.
(SFC, 12/25/13, p.D2)
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 Jan 5, In South Korea the Changgyeong ferry sank as it was cruising from Yeosu to Busan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_Korean_ferry_disasters)
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 Apr 27, US General Mark W. Clark issued Operation Moolah to coincide with Operation Little Switch, an exchange of sick and wounded POWs between the Communist and UN forces in North and South Korea. The US set up Operation Moolah to award $100,000 to the first pilot to defect in a Russian made MiG.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moolah)(Econ, 5/16/15, p.79)
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 No Kum Sok defected and landed his aircraft at Kimpo airfield outside Seoul. He collected a reward while denying any knowledge of a bounty. American scientists were able to examine the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, powered by a jet engine superior to those then used in American fighter planes. It first saw combat in Korea during November 1950, where its performance shifted the balance of air power to Russian-backed North Korea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Kum-sok)(HNPD, 9/28/98)
1953 South Korea passed a law against abortion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.32)
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)
1956 South Korea opened its first stock exchange.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.76)
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 In South Korea Cho Yong-gi founded Yoido Full Gospel Church. By 2011 it ranked as the world’s largest Christian congregation with over one million members.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.51)
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)
1959 Lucky Goldstar of South Korea, later known as LG Electronics, produced the country’s first radio.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.56)
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)
1960 South Korea’s population was about 25 million.
(Econ, 7/17/10, SR p.10)
1960-2009 South Korea’s fertility rate fell during this period form 6 children per woman to 1.15.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.78)
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)
1961 The per capita GDP of South Korea was $91.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.44)
1962 Mar 16, South Korea’s Supreme Council passed the Political Activities Purification Law, which essentially barred political participation by any civilians associated with the two previous governments. In protest, the SCNR's puppet president resigned, and Park Chung Hee named himself acting president.
(http://tinyurl.com/hn6kdc8)
1963 Oct 15, In South Korea Park Chung-hee was elected president as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party. He narrowly defeated former President Yun, the candidate of the Civil Rule Party, by just over 156,000 votes—a margin of 1.5 percent.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee)
1964-1973 South Korea deployed more than 300,000 military personnel to help the US effort in South Vietnam against the communists.
(AP, 2/19/19)
1965 Jul 19, Syngman Rhee (b.1875), the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (1948-60), died.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee)
1965 The government of Japan signed a peace treaty with South Korea that covered reparation claims of South Korean women used as sex slaves. Japan paid $500 million to South Korea in compensation for wartime excesses and colonial era claims.
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 216)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A11)(Econ, 11/9/13, p.48)
1965 South Korea banned the use of Chinese hair in its wig industry. By the late 1960s wigs made up roughly 10 percent of the country’s total exports by revenue.
(Econ 7/29/17, p.33)
1965 Japan’s recognition of South Korea enabled Koreans in Japan to become South Korean. Koreans who did not became North Korean by default and went to Japan’s North Korean schools.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.38)
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)
1967 Jan 19, North Korean artillery batteries fired on and sank ROKN PCE-56 off the north Korean east coast killing 39 South Korean sailors.
(AP, 3/27/10)(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/dmz-list.htm)
1967 Dec 29, Jirisan became South Korea’s first and largest national park. It was home to the highest peak on the South Korean mainland. By 2020 South Korea's 22 national parks welcomed around 45 million visitors every year.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_parks_of_South_Korea)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.65)
1967 Shin Kyuk-ho took his Lotte enterprise home to South Korea from Japan, as dictator Park Chung-hee offered tax breaks and perks. He had founded Lotte in post-war Japan as a chewing gum business. In 2015 it was South Korea’s fifth largest chaebol, but controlling companies remained in Japan.
(Econ, 8/15/15, p.58)
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 Park Tae-joon (1927-2011) founded POSCO 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)(AP, 12/13/11)
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)
1969 South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was formed and began making transistor radios. By 2011 it had evolved into the world’s leading manufacturer of televisions and much else.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.75)
1970 Apr, North Korea intercepted a South Korean fishing trawler. Most of the crew were later repatriated but Lee Jae-geun, owner of the trawler, was held for three decades before he escaped home.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.3)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church_of_the_United_States)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A12)
1971 South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee gave nearly every village 335 bags of cement. After a year those thought successful were given more cement plus steel rods in return for pooling savings into local banks. This was later said to have been the beginning of the saemaul (new village) movement that modernized the countryside.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.44)
1971-1975 In South Korea Kim Jong-pil, the founder of South Korea's spy agency, served as prime minister under dictator boss Park Chung-hee.
(AP, 6/23/18)
1972 Jul 4, Lee Hu-rak (1924-2009), South Korean President Park Chung-hee’s top intelligence officer, helped broker a joint statement in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula. The July 4 joint communique was hailed as the first major accord between the Koreas on unification since the Korean War ended with a fragile truce in 1953.
(AP, 10/31/09)
1972 Dec 28, A North Korean navy ship seized 25 South Korean fishermen aboard two boats. In 2013 Jeon Wook-Pyo, one of the 25, escaped and made it back to South Korea.
(AFP, 9/13/13)
1972 Hyundai began work on a shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea. It grew to become the largest in the world.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.3)
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 by a North Korean sympathizer. Park’s daughter took over as 1st lady.
(AP, 8/15/97)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.44)(Econ, 12/17/16, p.38)
1974 A South Korean ship sank off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and coast guard personnel.
(AP, 3/27/10)
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)
1978 The US military buried an estimated 250 drums of Agent Orange herbicide and other chemicals at the Camp Carroll base in South Korea. In 2011 the US military acknowledged the burial.
(AP, 6/2/11)
1979 Aug, In South Korea nearly 200 women at a bankrupt wig factory were fired and then beaten by police for refusing to leave. Kim Young-sam (1927-2015) sheltered the women in the headquarters of his opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
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 against Chun Doo-hwan, who had seized power in a coup. The region was the home of opposition leader Kim Dae-jung.
(AP, 5/18/00)(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.C10)(Econ 5/6/17, p.35)
1980 May 27, South Korean paratroopers 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)
1980 South Korea outlawed private, out-of-school tutoring driving the industry underground. In 2000 the ban was declared unbconstitutional.
(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.12)
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 May 18, The Rev. Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012), South Korean founder of the Unification Church, was convicted of tax evasion. Moon had moved to America in 1971. He claimed to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and that his purpose was "to unite Christianity and bring families back to God." "Moonies in America" [by Shupe et al] is a book critical of the Unification Church. Moon served 13 months in prison.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.A1,8)(AP, 5/18/07)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.90)
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)
1983 Oct 9, The president of South Korea, Chun Doo Hwan, with his cabinet and other top officials were scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb exploded. Hwan had not yet arrived so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans, including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members, and two Burmese were killed. North Korea was blamed. In the “Rangoon Massacre" a terrorist attack plotted by North Korea killed 17 South Korean officials on a visit to Burma.
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A18)(HN, 10/9/98)
1984 In South Korea Yoon Jeong-Hun (58) was arrested on charges of collecting military secrets for North Korea while studying at a medical college in Seoul. Yoon, who was born to Korean parents in Osaka, Japan, was sentenced to seven years in jail in the same year. He was paroled in 1988. In 2011 an appeals court cleared him of espionage charges, saying his confession was made under torture by military investigators.
(AFP, 4/8/11)
1984 Pope John Paul II visited South Korea and canonized over 100 martyrs executed from 1791-1888 during the Joseon Dynasty.
(SFC, 8/13/14, p.A7)
1986 Choe Deok-sin (aka Choi Dok Shin) (1914-1989), a former South Korean foreign minister, defected to North Korea along with his wife Ryu Mi-yong (1921-2016). In 2019 their son , Choe In-guk, also defected to North Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choe_Deok-sin)(SFC, 7/9/19, p.A4)
1986 Hyundai, a South Korean auto maker, entered the US market with low cost cars.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.72)
1987 Apr 14, In South Korea displaced residents of Sanggyedong protested against the government of dictator Chun Doo-hwan for demolishing their houses in Seoul.
(AP, 3/11/18)
1987 Jun, In South Korea millions flooded the streets of Seoul and other big cities to protest over the death of a student at the hands of torturers under Chun Doo-hwan (b.1931).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)(Econ 5/6/17, p.35)
1987 Jul 10, In South Korea Chun Doo-hwan resigned as head of the Democratic Justice Party, remaining its Honorary Chairman but giving official political party control for the upcoming election to Roh.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)
1987 Aug 29, In South Korea 33 followers of a cult were found bound, gagged and murdered in a factory in Yongin. Authorities said the tourist souvenir factory was owned by Park Soon Ja (48), the cult leader who was called "Benevolent Mother" by her followers.
(AP, 8/30/87)(Econ, 6/14/14, p.36)
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 Nov 29, A Korean Air jetliner, Flight 858, disappeared off Burma over the Indian Ocean, with the loss of all 115 people aboard. North Korean spies had planted a time-bomb on the South Korean Air jet a day earlier and got off in Abu Dhabi. Kim Hyon-hui and her accomplice were arrested two days later in Bahrain, where they tried to kill themselves by taking cyanide. The man died, but Kim recovered and was extradited to Seoul. She was convicted of the bombing and was sentenced to death. Even while on trial, she won admirers for her classic good looks. She was eventually pardoned and became a best-selling author, writing books about her time as a spy.
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A18)(AP, 11/29/97)(AP, 7/20/10)
1987 Dec 16, In South Korea fellow opposition leaders Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung split the opposition vote in the country’s first democratic elections. This allowed Chun Doo-hwan’s handpicked former army general Roh Tae-woo to win with 37% of the vote.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan)(SFC, 11/23/15, p.C4)(Econ 5/6/17, p.36)
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)
1987 In South Korea Lee Kun-hee took the helm of Samsung following the death of his father, founder of the company. By 2015 annual revenues were over $300 billion.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.51)
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 Oct 2, An Olympic scandal involved American boxer Roy Jones, who was robbed of a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, when he lost a split decision to South Korea's Park Si-Hun despite outpunching his opponent 86-32. Three judges who voted for the Korean were later suspended.
(AP, 9/23/11)(http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=T-8IS94GFyY)
1988 In South Korea Elena Shushunova (1969-2018), a Soviet gymnast, won the women's all-around gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
(AP, 8/16/18)
1988 South Korea summoned the nation’s big bosses for an inquiry into the corporate funding of a foundation run by Dictator Chun Doo-hwan.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.64)
1988 South Korea saw the formation of a National Headquarters for Labor Law Reform.
(www.socialistworld.net/publications/southkorea/sk13.html)
1988 South Korea introduced its National Pension Scheme.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
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 Jul, In South Korea Yoon Seong-yeo (22), a mechanic in the farming town of Hwaseong, was arrested after police accused him of raping and murdering the girl in September 1988. In 2019 Lee Chun-jae, a man who was serving a life sentence for murdering his sister-in-law in 1994, confessed to a number of murders, including that of the 13-year-old girl. In 2020 Yoon cleared his name in court.
(AP, 12/18/20)
1989 A report from Seoul National University estimated that 48,000 buildings housing 720,000 people were destroyed during the five years preceding the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
(AP, 3/11/18)
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)
1989 Humax, a maker of digital set top boxes, was founded in South Korea. By 2011 annual revenues exceeded $865 million.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.82)
1989 In South Korea Park In-keun (d.2016), the owner of a state-funded facility for the homeless and disabled, was acquitted of charges linked to illegal confinement of inmates. Hundreds of deaths, rapes and beatings at the Brothers Home, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, were documented in a 2016 report. In 2020 South Korea's Supreme Court said it will reopen the case.
(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
1990 South Korea and Russia established diplomatic relations. This allowed some 4,000 Koreans to returned from Sakhalin. Historians say Japan forcibly mobilized around 30,000 Koreans as workers during the late 1930s and 1940s on what was then called Karafuto, or the Japanese-occupied southern half of Sakhalin.
(AP, 8/11/20)
1991 Apr 19, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in South Korea for talks with President Roh Tae-woo.
(AP, 4/19/01)
1991 May 1, In South Korea former student Park Seung-hee (19) set herself on fire at Chunnam University to challenge continuing police violence under Pres. Roh Tae-woo.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycf7d5wr)(Econ 5/6/17, p.37)
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)
1991 US Pres. George H.W. Bush ordered the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from South Korea as a prelude to talks with North Korea two years later. 950 had been placed there after the Korean War.
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.35)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.25)
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 Oct 24, China normalized relations with South Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93South_Korea_relations)
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)
1992 A South Korean sex worker was killed by an American soldier. In 2017 filmmaker Gina Kim brought the murder to life in "Bloodless," a 12-minute piece that won the award for best VR story at this year's Venice Film Festival.
(AP, 10/1/17)
1993 Feb 25, Kim Young-sam (1927-2015) began serving as the 7th president of South Korea and continued to 1998.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
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)
1993 Oct 10, In South Korea the Seohae ferry sank killing 292 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_MV_Seohae)
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 May, In South Korea Lee Chun-jae was sentenced to death for killing his 18-year-old relative. In 1995 the sentence was reduced by a higher court to a life in prison and he became eligible to apply for parole in 2015. Mr Lee later acknowledged that he had murdered 14 women and girls around the city of Hwaseong between 1986 and 1991.
(The Telegraph, 11/2/20)
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 Aug 30, South Korea’s May 18 Memorial Foundation was created by people who believed it important to keep the ideas and memories of the May 18, 1980, Democratic Uprising in Gwangju alive and remembered.
(http://tinyurl.com/yd46rd3d)
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 In South Korea Samsung boss Lee Kun-hee had 150,000 faulty mobile phones and other devices burned and bulldozed in front of weeping employees.
(Econ, 9/27/14, p.61)(Econ, 10/15/16, p.57)
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 Kun 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 South Korea joined the OECD, the club for rich democracies.
(Econ, 11/28/15, p.37)
1996 Mayor Sim Jae Duck of Suwon, South Korea, 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 In South Korea 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 In South Korea Cho Choong-pil (20) was stabbed to death at a Burger King restaurant in Itaewon, an entertainment district near the US military headquarters in Seoul. US teenagers Edward Lee and Arthur Patterson accused each other of killing Cho. Lee was later sentenced to life in prison but an appeals court later reduced that to 20 years. Patterson initially got an 18-month jail term for destroying evidence and possessing a dangerous weapon. In 2015 Patterson was extradited to South Korea to face a new trial. In 2016 Patterson (36) was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
(AP, 9/23/15)(AP, 1/29/16)
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 Mar 31, Starcraft, a military science fiction real-time strategy video game, was released in South Korea. It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, a California-based company.
(Econ, 10/30/10, p.71)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft)
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 Geumgangsan (Mount Diamond), just on the northern side of the divided Korean peninsula. Hyundai Asan began operating the 4,900-acre compound. The collaboration halted in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. In 2001 North Korea told South Korean tourism officials to leave the resort.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W7)(SFC, 8/23/11, p.A2)
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)
1998-2000 In South Korea Kim Jong-pil, the founder of South Korea's spy agency, served his second term as prime minister.
(AP, 6/23/18)
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, Naver was incorporated as NHN Corp. by ex-Samsung employees, and launched on September 12 as the first Web portal in South Korea that used its own proprietary search engine. In 2017 Naver was the fifth most used search engine in the world, following Google, Yahoo, Baidu and Bing.
(https://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 6, The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) was set up to help East Asian cash strapped countries defend their currencies in times of trouble. The initiative came in response to the 1997 East Asian financial crises. ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea launched the multilateral arrangement of currency swaps (CMI).
(WSJ, 5/5/05, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai_Initiative)
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 June 13, 2000, summit with Pres. Kim Dae-jung.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)(AP, 2/1/03)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(Econ, 8/29/09, p.76)
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 19, North Korea announced it had made the city of Sinuiju on its border with China a "special administrative region," a move South Korean media said was the first step towards creating a new economic zone. The project was soon mothballed after its first governor, Yang Bin, was jailed in China for tax evasion. Yang Bin was formally sentenced in July 2003 for 18 years, and was fined for 2.3 million renminbi.
(Reuters, 9/19/02)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Bin)
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)
2002-2005 North Korean animators produced parts of a South Korean cartoon show featuring Pororo, a purple, handbag-carrying penguin.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.63)
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 Jun, A pilot Confucius Institute program, designed to promote the study of Chinese abroad, was established in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The first Confucius Institute was then established in Seoul on Nov 21, 2004. The 75th was established in Cracow, Poland, in 2006. By the end of 2013 there were 440 institutes in over 100 countries.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute)(Econ, 9/13/14, p.51)
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 Psy, a South Korean rapper famous for “Gangnam Style," said American soldiers should be killed "slowly and painfully" at a Seoul concert during the Iraq war. In 2012 he apologized for his words ahead of a holiday concert to be attended by US President Obama and his family.
(AP, 12/8/12)
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 Jan 29, Nam June Paik (74), avant-garde Korean-American artist, died in Miami, Florida. He is credited with inventing video art in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. In a 1974 report commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, Paik wrote of a telecommunications network of the future he called the "Electronic Super Highway," predicting it "will become our springboard for new and surprising human endeavors."
(AP, 1/30/06)(http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3670)
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 16, Shootings in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech left 32 people dead. Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least 15 people were hurt, some seriously. Two professors from India and Israel were among the dead at the Virginia Tech shooting, the deadliest in US history. The gunman was a South Korean national named Seung-Hui Cho (23). Cho was an undergraduate student in his senior year majoring in English who lived on campus. His residence was in Centerville, Virginia, and he had resident alien status. Between shootings Seung-Hui took time to e-mail videos, photos and writings to NBC. Virginia law allowed Cho to buy one gun each month. In 2009 Lucinda Roy, head of English at Virginia Tech, authored “No Right To Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech."
(AP, 4/16/07)(AP, 4/17/07)(AFP, 4/17/07)(WSJ, 4/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.27)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.32)
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. On Dec 4, 2011, a settlement was reached to pay 120 SF Bay Area commercial fishermen $3.6 million.
(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)(SFC, 1/5/11, p.C3)
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. Chairman Lee Kun-hee was ordered to pay $40 million in taxes and $95.6 billion in fines. A 3-year prison sentence was suspended.
(AP, 4/17/08)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.74)
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 MV Amira after it came under attack. 17 suspected pirates were apprehended following the attack in the Gulf of Aden. In 2010 a Kenya court freed all 17 pirates for lack of evidence. A magistrate blamed the loss of the case on the US Navy for not providing video and photographic proof that they claimed to have.
(AP, 5/14/09)(AP, 11/5/10)
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 Jul 30, North Korea's military seized four South Korean fishermen after their boat strayed into North Korean waters. The fishermen were released on Aug 29.
(AP, 7/31/09)(AP, 8/29/09)
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)
2009 Aug 25, South Korea launched its first rocket, just months after rival North Korea's launch drew international anger, but space officials said the satellite it carried failed to enter its intended orbit.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 6, Six South Koreans camping and fishing along a river flowing from North Korea were swept away when it suddenly doubled in height, because a new dam in the North released a large amount of water without warning. On Oct 14 North Korea offered a rare apology for unleashing the dam water and promised to alert Seoul to such measures in the future.
(AP, 9/6/09)(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Sep 9, In South Korea performers from around the world have gathered on the South Korean island of Jeju for this week's international Delphic Games, popularly known as the "Culture Olympics." The first Delphic Games of the modern era were held in Russia in 2000 and the second in Malaysia in 2005.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 10, Australia announced liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals worth up to 60 billion US dollars with Japan and South Korea, raising its status as a major energy supplier.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 18, South Korean scientists said they had developed a new transistor which moves faster and consumes less energy than existing semiconductors, a technology opening the way for no-booting computers.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 26, In North Korea 97 older South Koreans reunited with 228 North Korean relatives at the Diamond Mountain resort. This was the first reunion in nearly two years.
(SSFC, 9/27/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 28, South Korea's parliament endorsed the appointment of economics professor Chung Un-Chan as prime minister despite strong objections by opposition parties.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 28, In China foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea pledged to deepen cooperation on non-proliferation and disarmament, as pressure grew on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
(AFP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 5, A South Korean lawmaker, Kwon Young-se, said North Korea has received the equivalent of about $2.2 billion under deals aimed at persuading the isolated nation to dismantle its nuclear facilities, in what his office said is the first accounting of the cost of the failed strategy. In addition to the money it was given in the disarmament-for-aid deals, the North has also received nearly 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) of food, fertilizer and other humanitarian aid from the US, South Korea and international organizations over the past 10 years.
(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 10, China, Japan and South Korea held a 3-way summit in Beijing.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.43)
2009 Oct 14, In South Korea Rev. Sun Myung Moon (89) married thousands of couples in the Unification Church's largest mass wedding in a decade and potentially the last for the leader. More than 20,000 people gathered at Sun Moon University campus in Asan, south of Seoul, for the "blessing ceremony" while some 20,000 more joined simultaneous ceremonies in the US, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. The spectacle came as Moon, the church's controversial founder, moved to hand day-to-day leadership over to his 3 sons and daughter.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, Top EU and South Korean trade officials signed a free trade deal which the EU said could boost trade between the two by euro19 billion ($28 billion).
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 26, South Korea offered a small amount of food aid to North Korea, its first direct assistance to the impoverished neighbor in nearly two years of strained relations.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 26, Kang Tong Rim (30) defected into North Korea. The next day a South Korean military statement said Kang had formerly served in an army division near where a fence was found cut and he has been on a police wanted list following his alleged involvement in an assault case in September.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 26, In South Korea Dr. Hwang Woo-suk (56), a stem cell scientist, was convicted on criminal charges relating to faked research, but avoided jail time.
(SFC, 10/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 27, The Japanese destroyer JS Kurama collided with the South Korean container ship Carina Star in the Kanmon Strait near the southern main island of Kyushu and both were engulfed in flames.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 30, South Korea announced plans to send troops to Afghanistan to protect its civilian aid workers, two years after withdrawing its forces following a fatal hostage crisis.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 10, A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border about 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South's ship returned fire before the North's vessel sailed back toward its waters.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Korea at least ten people, including eight Japanese tourists, were killed and six others injured in a blaze at an indoor shooting range in Busan.
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 17, South Korea announced its first greenhouse gas reduction target, pledging to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by 4 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, South Korean auto giant Hyundai said it would roll out another new small car in India as it jostles with rivals for a larger slice of the fast-growing Indian market.
(AFP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, In South Korea President Barack Obama said a US envoy would visit North Korea early next month, as he joined South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in urging the communist state back to nuclear talks.
(AFP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 19, In France South Korean model Daul Kim (20), a fashion week regular in New York, Milan and Paris, was been found hanged in her Paris apartment.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 28, A South Korean fishing vessel burned and sank in the port of Uruguay's capital. Navy officials said all 38 crew members are safe.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 10, North Korea agreed to accept medicine from South Korea to fight an outbreak of swine flu, in a development that could improve relations between the nations after a deadly maritime clash.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 17, Xcor Aerospace of Mohave, Ca., the developer of a rocket plane for space tourism, said it has been selected to supply launch services to the Yecheon Astro Space Center, a nonprofit organization in South Korea.
(SFC, 12/18/09, p.A21)
2009 Dec 18, South Korea's military said it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the US and may have been carried out by North Korea.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 18, South Korean trucks crossed into North Korea delivering enough doses of antiviral drugs for 500,000 North Koreans. An estimated 50 people in North Korea have died of swine flu since November. Han Su Chol, a North Korean health minister, expressed thanks.
(SFC, 12/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Dec 27, A South Korean consortium, led by Korea Electric Power (KEPCO), won a $20 billion contract to build 4 nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
(Econ, 1/2/10, p.47)
2009 Dec 31, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak pardoned former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was convicted of tax evasion on Apr 17, 2008. Pres. Lee Myung-bak said the country needed Mr. Lee’s help to win South Korea’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.74)
2009 In South Korea an average of 40 people a day took their lives this year.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.44)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 13, North Korea said it will begin to allow in more American tourists after years of heavy restrictions on visits to the isolate country. North Korea's military warned that it would retaliate against South Korea if Seoul doesn't stop activists from launching propaganda leaflets across their divided border.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 19, North and South Korea discussed development of their joint industrial complex, despite Pyongyang's recent threats it might break off all dialogue with its neighbor and could even stage an attack.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, South Korea’s health ministry said in a statement that switches will be flicked at 7.30 pm every third Wednesday in the month to "help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing." Low birthrate was a pressing issue in this fast-ageing society.
(AFP, 1/20/10)
2010 Jan 24, North Korea threatened South Korea with war after Seoul warned it would launch a pre-emptive strike if the North was preparing a nuclear attack, the latest salvo in a battle of rhetoric despite signs of improved cooperation across the militarized frontier.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, South Korea's president offered to help energy-hungry India build more nuclear plants as the two Asian powerhouses set a goal of doubling bilateral trade by 2014.
(AFP, 1/25/10)
2010 Jan 27, North Korea fired more than 80 shells into the sea near its disputed maritime border with South Korea, sparking an artillery exchange which fuelled tensions on the peninsula.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 1, Officials from the two Koreas met in North Korea to discuss their joint industrial complex just days after an exchange of gunfire at sea emphasized the constant security threat on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 4, A South Korean news report said the director of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's secret moneymaking "Room 39" bureau has been fired. Analysts said the move may be a way to get around international sanctions. Room 39 is described as the lynchpin of the North's so-called "court economy" centered on the dynastic Kim family. The department is believed to finance his family and top party officials with business ventures, some legitimate and some not, that include counterfeiting and drug-smuggling.
(AP, 2/4/10)
2010 Feb 6, In South Korea a giant steel float that will be part of a "floating island" in Seoul boasting off-shore entertainment facilities began a snails-paced trip towards Han River. The three-meter high float, 85 meters long and 49 meters wide, will be part of Viva, one of three artificial islets to be built near the southern end of Banpo Bridge.
(AFP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 11, South Korea said the North Korean government has made a rare apology for a policy blunder and lifted a ban on using foreign currency.
(SFC, 2/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 14, South Korea’s Samsung, the world's second-biggest handset maker, unveiled its first phone to use its own new operating system, called 'bada'.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Canada Kim Yu-Na (19) of South Korea, achieved her country's first Olympic figure skating title with a resounding victory in the Pacific Coliseum.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Mar 3, An American diplomat based in South Korea fled to the Philippines after facing charges that he swindled a local woman out of nearly $200,000 in the southern city of Busan.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 19, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Cambodia has temporarily suspended marriages between South Koreans and its citizens to curb human trafficking. The latest ban came after the March 3 conviction of a Cambodian matchmaker who arranged marriages between Korean men and 25 Cambodian brides.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island. An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued. A North Korean mine was later suspected as the cause of the explosion. South Korea's defense minister confirmed on May 10 that traces of an explosive chemical substance used to make torpedoes were found in the wreckage of the naval ship. It was later determined that a North Korean submarine sank the Cheonan. Of the 104 officers and enlisted men onboard the ship, forty-six were killed. North Korea denied responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/27/10)(AP, 3/29/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 12/24/19)
2010 Mar 27, Korea Life became the first big South Korean life insurer to go public. Others were expected to soon follow.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.81)
2010 Apr 4, The South Korean Samho Dream oil supertanker was bound for the US with 24 crew members when was hijacked off the coast of Somalia by Somali pirates. On Nov 6 South a Korean news agency said the ship was freed following a ransom payment of $9.5 million.
(AFP, 4/4/10)(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 11/6/10)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.70)
2010 Apr 8, North Korea said it had scrapped a tourism deal with South Korea and would "freeze" some assets owned by Seoul at a mountain resort in the communist state.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 11, North Korea informed South Korea that it will begin quitting a joint tourism project in the communist country this week, in another setback to relations between the countries.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 20, In South Korea two North Korean army majors were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill Hwang Jang-yop (87), a high-profile defector. Jang-yop was one of North Korea's most powerful officials when he fled the impoverished nation 13 years ago in a defection that reportedly enraged Kim Jong Il.
(AP, 4/21/10)
2010 Apr 22, A South Korean news report said the South Korea's military believes a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank its navy ship last month, based on intelligence gathered jointly with the United States.
(Reuters, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 23, North Korea said it will confiscate five South Korean-owned properties at a jointly operated mountain resort in the isolated communist country, a development likely to worsen already-soured relations.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 27, In Nepal Oh Eun-sun (44), a South Korean mountaineer, became the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest mountains, crawling on all fours as she reached the last summit. She reached the summit of Annapurna 13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 May 12, In South Korea there were two separate cases of suspected group suicide. 4 women and one man — all in their 20s and 30s — were found dead inside a parked car in Hwaseong. 2 of the five left suicide notes. 3 men were found dead hours later in Chuncheon, about 85 km (50 miles) east of Seoul.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 20, A multinational team blamed North Korea for sinking the South Korean corvette with a torpedo in March, claiming 46 lives, prompting an angry denial from Pyongyang and a threat of war if it is punished.
(AFP, 5/21/10)
2010 May 24, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak cut trade to North Korea vowing the country would "pay a price" for a torpedo attack that killed 46 sailors, and promised to haul its impoverished neighbor before the UN Security Council. Lee Myung-bak said that the country will take Pyongyang to the UN Security Council, suspend inter-Korean exchanges and ban North Korean ships from passing through its waters.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, North Korea declared that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 27, South Korean warships fired guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs in a large-scale military exercise, a week after Seoul accused North Korea of shooting a torpedo that sank a navy frigate in March. North Korean declared it would scrap an accord with the South designed to prevent armed clashes at their maritime border, and warned of "immediate physical strikes" if any South Korean ships enter its waters.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, A South Korean couple were convicted of abandoning their newborn daughter, who starved to death while they addictively played an online game raising a virtual child.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 29, The premier of China, North Korea's main ally, offered condolences to South Korea for the sinking of a warship blamed on Pyongyang after promising that Beijing, under pressure to punish the North, would not defend any country guilty of the attack.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 Jun 2, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said 14,579 people committed suicide last year, with people over 61 accounting for about one-third of the deaths. Yonhap said the National Police Agency provided the figures.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 4, South Korea handed over a letter officially referring North Korea to the UN Security Council over the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which left 46 sailors killed.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, In South Korea finance chiefs of the Group of 20 leading economies worked to craft an agenda for keeping the global recovery on track and fending off future crises, sidestepping conflicts to present a united show of support for Europe's $1 trillion bailout.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 10, A South Korean 2-stage Naro rocket carrying a climate observation satellite apparently exploded 137 seconds into its flight, the country's second major space setback in less than a year.
(AP, 6/10/10)(SFC, 6/11/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 10, In San Francisco the office tower at 333 Market St. was sold to a group of South Korean investors including the Korean Teacher’s Credit Union and Korean Federation of community Credit Cooperatives for $333 million. Wells Fargo occupied 100% of the rentable space with a lease that runs to 2026. Wells Fargo also provided a $200 million loan at 4.5% to the buyers.
(SFC, 6/12/10, p.D1)
2010 Jun 18, A South Korean Air Force fighter jet crashed into the sea after a training mission and its two pilots were killed.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 21, South Korea said abnormally high radiation levels were detected near the border between the two Koreas on may 15, days after North Korea claimed to have mastered a complex technology key to manufacturing a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 23, South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 9, South Korean prosecutors raided the office of PM Chung Un-chan over allegations that its ethics officials illegally investigated a businessman two years ago over the posting of an Internet video critical of the president.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 25, The US and South Korea launched a major naval exercise involving a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan despite North Korea's threats of nuclear retaliation.
(AFP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 31, Land mines began washing up on South Korean shores, apparently swept down from North Korea by torrential rains. One killed a man and wounded another.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Jul 31, UNESCO added seven cultural sites to its World Heritage List including Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, home to nuclear bomb testing in the 1940s and 1950s. Also added to the list were the Turaif District in Saudi Arabia; Australia's penal colony sites; the Jantar Mantar astronomical observation site in India; a shrine in Ardabil in Iran; the Tabriz historic bazaar complex, also in Iran; and the historic villages of Hahoe and Yangdong in South Korea.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 8, North Korean authorities seized a South Korean fishing boat and its 7-man crew. North Korea freed the crew on Sep 7.
(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Aug 10, Japan apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule over the country, seeking to strengthen ties between the two countries ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 14, South Korean Lee Dae-Ho broke a world record by scoring a home run for his ninth straight game.
(AFP, 8/14/10)
2010 Aug 15, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak proposed a 3-step plan to unify the Korean peninsula and a new tax to help his country absorb the enormous cost of integration.
(SFC, 8/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 17, North Korea rejected a new unification proposal from South Korea, calling it a "ridiculous" plan aimed at weakening the North in preparation for a US-assisted invasion.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 19, South Korea said it has blocked North Korea's new Twitter account from being accessed in the South, saying the tweets contain "illegal information" under the country's security laws.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 20, South Korean authorities arrested Rev. Han Sang-ryol, a religious activist, as he returned home across the heavily fortified border after an illegal trip to North Korea. South Korea’s government prohibits its citizens from joining pro-North Korean organizations or having unauthorized contact with the communist country. They also ban citizens from supporting or praising the North.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Sep 1, A South Korean news report and an intelligence official said North Korea has changed the names of its trading companies and falsified trade documents to avoid international sanctions and continue exporting weapons.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, Typhoon Kompasu struck South Korea, killing 5 people and toppling trees, streetlights and scaffolding in what was called the strongest storm to hit the Seoul area in 15 years. In North Korea the typhoon killed dozens of people and destroyed roads, railways and thousands of homes.
(AP, 9/2/10)(AP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 8, South Korea said it will ban unauthorized financial dealings with Iran and impose other penalties as part of a US-led campaign to enforce sanctions against the country over its disputed nuclear enrichment program. South Korea listed 126 Iranian companies and individuals for the sanctions.
(AP, 9/8/10)(SFC, 9/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 13, South Korea announced plans to send 5,000 tons of rice and other aid to flood-stricken North Korea in a sign of easing tension between the divided countries.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, The Korea Communications Commission said there were 50 million mobile service subscribers in South Korea as of this month, more than the population of 48.8 million.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, North Korea said it proposed a joint probe with the US of the deadly March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship. An earlier international investigation blamed Pyongyang.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 21, Eighteen people have died and 48 are missing after Fanapi churned through southern China, while 65 people were killed in monsoon rain in India and 100,000 displaced after a lake burst in southern Pakistan. Two people went missing and thousands of homes flooded when a record rainstorm hit parts of South Korea during a national holiday.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2010 Oct 1, Red Cross officials from the two Koreas agreed to hold reunions for families separated by the Korean War amid mixed signals from North Korea on easing tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 7, South Korean financial regulators said they will suspend the operations of an Iranian bank for two months, as part of international sanctions over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
(AFP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 10, In South Korea Hwang Jang-yop (87), the key architect of North Korea's isolationist state policy, was found dead at his Seoul residence. He once mentored authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il before defecting to South Korea in 1997.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 10, Some 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 10, Kim Jong Un (26), the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (68), joined his father at a massive military parade in his most public appearance since being unveiled as the nation's next leader. South Korean activists also sent some 20,000 leaflets packed with $1 bills and CDs carrying anti-Kim Jong Un rap songs floating across the border in hopes of reaching ordinary North Koreans.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 25, South Korea prepared to send 5,000 tons of rice to flood victims in North Korea in its first humanitarian rice shipment to its communist neighbor since a conservative, pro-US government took office in 2008.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 27, South Korea's Red Cross said North Korea is demanding that South Korea resume large-scale food aid and joint economic projects in return for regular reunions of family members separated by the Korean War more than a half century ago.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 29, North and South Korea exchanged gunfire across their heavily armed land border, despite an apparent thaw in tensions on the divided peninsula in the past few months.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, Hundreds of North and South Korean family members separated for more than half a century by the Korean War embraced each other in tearful reunions.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 7, In South Korea thousands of people chanted anti-globalization slogans in Seoul to protest this week's Group of 20 summit. Part of the crowd attempted to march down nearby streets but were stopped by riot police, who fired pepper spray.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 10, President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea for the G20 summit. He said a strong, job-creating economy in the United States would be the country's most important contribution to a global recovery as he pleaded with world leaders to work together despite sharp differences.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 10, A South Korean navy ship was sinking late Wednesday after colliding with a larger fishing boat off the southern coast. 28 navy sailors were rescued but two were still missing.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, A 2-day G20 economic summit opened in Seoul, South Korea, with President Barack Obama and fellow world leaders sharply divided over currency and trade policies. They hoped to address 3 major concerns: a) the dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency and America’s management of it; b) the problem of vast foreign exchange reserves, particularly in emerging countries; c) The scale and volatility of capital flows.
(AP, 11/11/10)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.85)
2010 Nov 11, A woman (41) made her way to South Korea from North Korea becoming the 20,000th defector to do so. The last 10,000 came over the last 3 years.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 12, In South Korea leaders of the G20 major economies refused to back a US push to make China boost its currency's value, keeping alive a dispute that raises fears of a global trade war amid criticism that cheap Chinese exports are costing American jobs.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 12, A South Korean spy plane crashed during routine training and its two pilots were killed in the 2nd military accident to strike South Korea while it hosted the G20 summit.
(AP, 11/12/10)
2010 Nov 14, Iranian officials reported that Iran’s Entekhab Industrial Group has signed a contract sealing its acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Electronics for some $518 million. Daewoo was set up in the 1960s and became one of the biggest companies in the world before it disintegrated in financial disarray in the 1990s. Its shipbuilding and auto units are now independent companies in their own right.
(AFP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 15, South Korea's government the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea has surged in recent years because of economic suffering in the North, with more than 10,000 defections over the past three years.
(AP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 15, In South Korea a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after killing his mother in a fight over Internet games.
(AP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 23, North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire after the North shelled Yeonpyeong island near their disputed sea border, killing at least 2 South Korean marines and 2 civilians, setting dozens of buildings ablaze and sending civilians fleeing for shelter.
(AP, 11/23/10)(AFP, 11/24/10)(Econ, 10/26/13, SR p.5)
2010 Nov 25, South Korea's defense minister resigned amid intense criticism two days after a North Korean artillery attack killed four people on a small island near the Koreas' disputed frontier.
(AP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 28, China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the US and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Dec 3, South Korea threatened to bomb North Korea if it tries a repeat of last week's attack, raising its rhetoric after the US warned of an "immediate threat" from Pyongyang.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 3, Lithuania said a South Korean bidder, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), had pulled out of a four-nation nuclear power plant project and another was rejected. Lithuania itself has been aiming to have a stake of around one-third, but there has been disagreement with Estonia, Latvia and Poland about their relative holdings and power share-out.
(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, South Korea's Pres. Lee Myung-bak promised to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbor launched last month.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, The EU competition watchdog fined 5 Taiwanese and South Korean electronics companies euro649 million ($857 million) for fixing prices on LCD panels between 2001 and 2006. Samsung Electronics Co., also participated in the price fixing but escaped a fine because it blew the whistle on the cartel.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 13, A South Korean fishing boat sank in the Antarctic Ocean's frigid waters, with 22 sailors feared killed in the open sea where vessels trawl for deep-water fish. 20 survivors were rescued shortly after the 614-ton vessel went down some 1,400 miles (2,250 km) south of New Zealand. 5 bodies were recovered and 17 men remained missing.
(AP, 12/13/10)(SFC, 12/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 17, North Korea said it would strike again at the South if a live-firing drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people. Russia urged South Korea to halt plans for the artillery drill.
(AP, 12/17/10)(Reuters, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, A 63-ton Chinese fishing boat capsized after ramming into a 3,000-ton South Korean coastguard ship trying to curb its illegal fishing activities, leaving one Chinese crew member dead and another missing.
(AFP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 19, The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 22, South Korea announced land and sea military exercises including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang's attack on a southern island.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 28, South Korean education officials said almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city, in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec, In South Korea Jay Y. Lee (43), the son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was named president of Samsung Group, which contained 83 firms under an umbrella company called Everland. The Lee family controlled a 46% stake.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.77)
2010 The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established within the framework of the UNFCCC. It was founded as a mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. It is based in the new Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Climate_Fund)
2011 Jan 1, In South Korea one of five wild ducks found dead this week was confirmed to have been infected with a lethal strain of the bird flu virus, its first outbreak in over two years.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 3, In India a government environmental panel approved the initial stage of a project by POSCO of South Korea, to produce 4 million tons of steel on a 4,000-acre site in Orissa state. Activists opposed the project citing ecological damage.
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.67)
2011 Jan 5, North Korea proposed "unconditional" talks with Seoul to mend battered cross-border ties, in its most conciliatory remarks since cranking up tensions by shelling a South Korean island. South Korea dismissed the North Korean offer.
(AFP, 1/5/11)(Reuters, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 8, North Korea reiterated a proposal for unconditional talks with South Korea to ease tensions on the divided peninsula.
(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 10, South Korea rebuffed a North proposal for talks to ease tensions but extended its own offer to discuss last year's two military attacks blamed on Pyongyang and North Korea's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 12, North and South Korea restored an important cross-border communication channel, though South Korea still rejected North Korea's calls for talks to defuse high tensions.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 13, In South Korea prize-winning director Park Chan-wook's said his latest film, "Night Fishing," was filmed using 10 Apple iPhone 4s, three of which he himself controlled.
(Reuters, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 18, The South Korean commandos aboard a speedboat and a Lynx helicopter were dispatched to rescue a Mongolian ship from Somali pirates. The firefight left several pirates missing and believed killed.
(AP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 20, South Korea agreed to a North Korean offer of high-level military talks, a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula which improves the prospect of renewed aid-for-disarmament negotiations.
(Reuters, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 21, South Korean navy commandos stormed the Samho Jewelry, a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, rescuing all the 21 crew and killing eight pirates. The pirates had seized the 11,500-ton chemical freighter Samho Jewelry on January 15. Five pirates were captured.
(AFP, 1/21/11)(AP, 1/31/11)(Econ, 2/5/11, p.69)
2011 Jan 26, In South Korea an art exhibition by North Korean defector Song Byeok opened in Seoul. One work featured the head of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, smiling beneath his trademark sunglasses and wall of black hair, atop the body of Marilyn Monroe, pushing down her white dress in an updraft.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 31, India gave approval to South Korea's POSCO to build a giant $12 billion steel plant, in the country's biggest foreign investment deal since market reforms launched in 1991.
(AFP, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 8, Military officers from North and South Korea held talks inside the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone in the rivals' first official dialogue since the North's deadly artillery barrage of a South Korean island in November.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, North Korean military officers stalked out of the first official talks with rival South Korea in months, dashing hopes for eased tensions after a deadly artillery attack in November increased fears of war on the peninsula. The meeting was sunk because the two sides disagreed about what should be on the agenda of their next talks.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 21, Danish shipper Maersk announced the order of 10 colossal container ships from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.73)
2011 Feb 28, US and South Korean troops launched major annual land, sea and air exercises, amid North Korean threats to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" in the event of any provocation.
(AFP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 4, North Korea blocked the repatriation of 27 citizens whose boat drifted into South Korean waters, insisting that Seoul also hand over four others who want to stay in the South. The 31 North Koreans were travelling on a fishing boat which drifted across the Yellow Sea border in thick fog on February 5.
(AFP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, In South Korea unidentified attackers targeted more than two dozen government and private websites. Officials reported no serious damage a day after a pair of similar assaults.
(AP, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 27, The Red Cross said South Korea has repatriated 27 of 31 North Koreans whose status was uncertain for more than a month because 4 others on their drifting fishing boat defected.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 31, South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld a military law banning homosexual behavior, saying the need to maintain discipline takes precedence over individual sexual freedom.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 7, In South Korea a mathematics student (19) at a prestigious engineering college jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment one day after meeting the school psychiatrist. He was distressed over low grades. Three other students have killed themselves since January at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 20, South Korean telecoms operator KT rolled out Kibot, a robot playmate for children, in a move aimed at cashing in on the potentially lucrative industry.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 28, In South Korea former US President Jimmy Carter said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wants direct talks with South Korea's leader, an offer unlikely to be accepted until Pyongyang takes responsibility for violence that killed 50 South Koreans last year.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr, In South Korea Kim Ou-joon founded his podcast “Naneun Ggomsuda" (I’m a sneaky trickster) with the express purpose of making fun of Pres. Lee Myung-bak.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.46)
2011 May 4, South Korean police said the body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry in Mungyong.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 17, In South Korea hundreds of prostitutes and pimps rallied near a red-light district in Seoul to protest a police crackdown on brothels, with some unsuccessfully attempting to set themselves on fire.
(AP, 5/17/11)
2011 May 19, A South Korean court boosted the amount the government must pay a group of North Korean defectors who say a leak of their identities led to retaliation against their families in the North.
(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, South Korea said the United States has agreed on a joint investigation after American veterans claimed they buried large amounts of Agent Orange at the Camp Carroll US military base in South Korea in 1978. Environmental tests already confirmed extremely high levels of dioxin in people, fish and soil near the Camp Carroll air base.
(AP, 5/22/11)(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 30, European anti-trust regulators launched in-depth probes into proposed US takeovers of South Korean and Japanese businesses manufacturing computer hard disk drives (HDD). The planned acquisitions of the hard disk drive operations of South Korean electronics giant Samsung by Seagate Technology, and the storage business of Japan's Hitachi by Western Digital Corporation in a sector with just five manufacturers worldwide have raised concerns. Brussels officials have until October 10 to decide what action if any they will take.
(AFP, 5/30/11)
2011 Jun 2, South Korea police found the bodies of two men and two women in their 20s in a parked van in Seongju, about 190 miles (300 km) southeast of Seoul. A suicide note was found.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 3, North Korea vowed to launch "retaliatory military actions" against South Korea, a threat that came days after Seoul said its military had used photos of Pyongyang's ruling family for target practice.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 27, South Korea said it will resume imports of Canadian beef suspended in 2003 after an outbreak of mad cow disease, agreeing to allow meat from cows younger than 30 months old.
(Reuters, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 27, In South Korea unionized workers at Standard Chartered bank went on strike over the issue of performance related pay. Korean bank staff were typically paid and promoted according to age and time.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.68)
2011 Jul 4, A South Korean marine, surnamed Kim (19), killed four colleagues at a front-line base. He also wounded another marine when he opened fire at a Ganghwa Island base just south of the tense maritime border with North Korea. Kim tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by detonating a grenade after the shooting. On Jan 13, 2012, Kim was sentenced to death after a court martial.
(AP, 7/5/11)(AP, 1/13/12)
2011 Jul 15, Somali pirates holding South Korean hostages demanded that the South Korean government release pirate prisoners and pay compensation for a commando raid that killed several pirates earlier this year.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 27, South Korean scientists said they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
(Reuters, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 27, In South Korea walls of mud buried 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin and flash floods submerged the streets and subway stations in Seoul, killing at least 36 people in the country’s heaviest rains this year.
(AP, 7/27/11)(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 28, A South Korean Asiana Airlines cargo plane crashed in waters off southern Jeju resort island. South Korean pilot, identified by the airline as Choi Sang-ki, was flying a Boeing-747 with a co-pilot, transporting computers, semiconductors, resin solution and paint among other items to Pudong in China.
(AP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 29, Parts of North Korean land mines washed down a swollen river into South Korea, and troops searched for other mines that may have been dislodged by deadly landslides and flooding that has stricken the peninsula. A 2-day downpour left at least 40 people dead.
(AP, 7/29/11)(SFC, 7/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul, In South Korea 46 soccer players were arrested this month as part of an investigation in match fixing.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.39)
2011 Aug 1, A South Korean prosecutor said officials have arrested five South Koreans on suspicions of spying for North Korea.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 7, Tropical Storm Muifa battered South Korea with strong rain and winds leaving four people dead and two missing.
(AFP, 8/8/11)
2011 Aug 9, South Korean officials said its ministry which handles relations with North Korea has been targeted by hackers in the latest of a series of online attacks on government and corporate websites.
(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 17, A group of some 27,000 South Koreans sued Apple for $26 million for what they claim are privacy violations from the collection of iPhone user location information.
(AP, 8/17/11)
2011 Aug 22, North Korea vowed to scrap all South Korean property at a joint mountain resort could end what was once a rare haven for curious southern tourists within North Korea. The South immediately expressed regret about the North's comments on Diamond Mountain and planned to seek international mediation.
(AP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 24, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak wrapped up a two-day state visit to Uzbekistan that was crowned by an agreement to develop a major gas field and build a chemicals plant in the country, energy deals worth a total of around $4.1 billion.
(AP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 25, South Korea prosecutors said 5 South Koreans, including a former parliamentary aide, have been indicted for allegedly spying for North Korea.
(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, In South Korea Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon's stepped down after losing a referendum on free school lunches for 50% of all schoolchildren. His resignation came two days after a citywide referendum that drew few of Seoul's 8 million eligible voters. The turnout of 25.7% didn't meet the legal requirement for counting ballots. The referendum's defeat means the 100% option takes effect.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Sep 22, In South Korea about 1,600 prostitutes and pimps at a rally in Seoul chanted slogans calling for laws, that toughened the punishment for prostitution, to be scrapped.
(AP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 27, It was reported that 3 activists opposing the North Korean government have been subjects in assassination attempts over the last 3 weeks by agents wielding poisoned needles. Two of the attacks took place in China, near the North Korean border, and the 3rd in Seoul, South Korea.
(SFC, 9/27/11, p.A3)
2011 Oct 4, Apple Inc rejected an offer from Samsung Electronics Co to settle their tablet computer dispute in Australia, possibly killing off the commercial viability of the South Korean firm's new Galaxy tablet in that market.
(Reuters, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 8, In South Korea US military officials apologized as they tried to ease growing public anger over 2 US soldiers who have been accused of raping teenage girls.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 12, The US Congress approved free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 18, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda started a visit to South Korea aimed at smoothing prickly relations, bringing with him a set of historic books seized by his country decades ago.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 21, In the southern Philippines 3 South Korean businessmen went missing. Officials later said they were abducted by unidentified men who lured them with a fake mining investment project. Police launched a search for Wu Seok-bung, Kim Nam-du, Choi In-soo and at least one Filipino guide after they failed to return to their hotel in Cagayan de Oro city. Choi In-soo escaped on Nov 25. Wu Seok-bung and Kim Nam-du were abandoned on Nov 26 as troops moved in. The guide was killed during captivity.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Oct 21, Pres. Obama signed free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/78rfnuz)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 28, South Korea's parliament approved a tougher law against sex crimes, inspired in part by a recent movie based on a real-life case of sexually abused deaf children.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Nov 1, A South Korean court sentenced US soldier Pfc. Kevin Flippin to 10 years in prison for raping a teenage girl, the second harshest punishment handed down to a convicted American soldier here in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 3, South Korean police fired water cannons to disperse more than 2,000 protesters who were trying to break into the National Assembly as lawmakers debated a free trade deal with the United States. Protesters said the free trade agreement would subjugate South Korea's economy and ruin their livelihoods.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 5, A South Korean official said 21 North Koreans were found in a boat drifting in South Korean waters this week, the largest such arrival in nine months.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 8, In South Korea Vietnam agreed to seek greater nuclear energy cooperation with South Korea, opening the way for its participation in a project to build atomic power plants at home.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 12, South Korea dispatched patrol boats and a helicopter for 8 missing crewmen after a fishing boat collided with a freighter and sank off its southwestern coast.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 15, Saudi Arabia said it has signed an agreement with South Korea on developing nuclear power generation to help meet the kingdom's rising demand.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Manila for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Dec 9, Australia's highest court dismissed rival Apple's appeal in its global patent battle against South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. Samsung is now free to sell its Galaxy tablet computers in Australia.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 16, South Korea joined a fresh multinational effort to press Iran to scrap its suspected nuclear weapons program, adding more than 100 names to a financial blacklist of Iranian firms and individuals.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 26, A British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160 tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 The South Korean film “Late Blossom" was about growing old. This year over 4,000 South Koreans over age 65 committed suicide.
(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2011 In South Korea the personal information of 35 million people was stolen from Cyworld, the country’s most popular social network.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2011 In South Korea four pregnant women died of lung problems for unknown reasons. A subsequent government probe found a "significant association" between lung damage and products used to sterilize domestic humidifiers. Most of the victims were found to have used Oxy Ssak Ssak, a liquid humidifier disinfectant sold by British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser in South Korea from 2001, that has been blamed for around 103 deaths -- mostly women and children. In 2016 Oxy RB said it was committed to a multi-million dollar compensation plan.
(AFP, 5/2/16)
2012 Jan 8, South Korean police detained a Chinese man (38) accused of throwing petrol bombs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul after claiming his grandmother was forced into wartime sex slavery.
(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 9, The presidents of China and South Korea agreed to work together to achieve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, in their first summit since Kim Jong Il's death opened the chance for major changes in North Korea.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 10, Three Vietnamese crew from a South Korean fishing boat died and seven others suffered burns after a fire broke out on their trawler off Antarctica. the Busan-flagged Jeong Woo 2 was fishing for the rare Patagonian toothfish, along with ray, crab and other bottom fishes.
(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 16, The South Korea Customs Service said 8 men allegedly transformed $260,000 in gold bars into small beads and smuggled them in their rectums to Japan two times in 2010 to avoid import taxes.
(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 20, South Korea lifted its nine-year import ban on Canadian beef.
(Reuters, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 28, South Korean activists floated giant balloons carrying boxes of socks into North Korea hoping that North Koreans could wear the socks or trade them for food during the harsh winter.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 2, North Korea's top ruling body again rebuffed South Korea's call for talks, saying Seoul's conservative leaders should first "repent of their crimes" and honor past summit agreements.
(AFP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 7, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Riyadh at the start of a two-day visit to the OPEC kingpin which comes as Seoul seeks to diversify its oil sources. Lee Myung-Bak held talks with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and the head of Saudi state oil giant Aramco, Khalid al-Faleh. Saudi Arabia pledged to ensure a stable supply of oil to South Korea.
(AFP, 2/7/12)(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 10, Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.
(AP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb 14, In South Korea over one hundred people rallied near the Chinese Embassy to protest China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned to their homeland.
(SFC, 2/15/12, p.A2)
2012 Feb 20, South Korea conducted live-fire military drills from five islands near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea, despite Pyongyang's threat to attack.
(AP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 27, South Korean legislator Park Sun-Young (55), who has staged a week-long hunger strike outside China's embassy, vowed to fast until death unless Beijing ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 3, In Uruguay a South Korean fishing vessel caught fire in the Montevideo port. Two bodies were found near the machine room of the Jung Woo 3 as firefighters continued to extinguish the fire.
(AP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, In South Korea journalists walked out of the state-owned Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) due to government interference. They joined colleagues at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), already on strike for a month. Journalists claimed to have over 2,600 files pointing to illegal government surveillance carried out between 2008-2010.
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/82ns7pl)(Econ, 4/7/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 13, Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 15, South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin won Asia's most prestigious prize for literature for her novel "Please Look After Mom," about a family's guilty soul-searching after the disappearance of their elderly mother.
(AFP, 3/15/12)
2012 Mar 15, KORUS, a long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, took effect. It slashed tariffs, tightened intellectual property rights and opened up South Korea’s services market. The agreement won praise from the two countries' leaders and prompting rallies by supporters and opponents.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(Econ, 3/18/17, p.75)
2012 Mar 22, Russia’s Lukoil signed a $1 billion deal with South Korea's Samsung Engineering to develop Iraq's second-biggest oil field, in which the energy giant has a majority stake.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 25, Pres. Obama met with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a nuclear security conference in South Korea. Obama other key allies considered providing Syrian rebels with communications help, medical aid and other "non-lethal" assistance.
(AP, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 26, In South Korea leaders or top officials from 53 nations gathered in Seoul for a summit on nuclear security. President Obama said the United States would further cut its own nuclear stockpiles, as he warned North Korea and Iran to back down over their atomic plans.
(AFP, 3/26/12)
2012 Mar 27, In South Korea world leaders including US President Barack Obama called for strong steps to combat nuclear terrorism, wrapping up a 53-nation summit overshadowed by North Korea's planned rocket launch.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 29, South Korean activists burned pictures of Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda and scuffled with police in a protest against Tokyo's claims to disputed islands. The demonstration was sparked after Japan's education ministry this week announced the results of its review of a school history book reasserting Japan's claim to islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 13, North Korea’s satellite launch, hailed as a moment of national pride, ended in failure when the rocket disintegrated over the Yellow Sea, earning Pyongyang embarrassment as well as condemnation from a host of nations that deemed it a covert test of missile technology.
(AP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 25, Two major South Korean retailers pulled US beef from their stores following the discovery of mad cow disease in a California dairy cow. US health authorities a day earlier said the animal was never a threat to the nation's food supply. US authorities said the dead cow had what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that a random mutation in the animal rather than infected cattle feed was the cause.
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 Apr 27, Tens of thousands of South Koreans flocked to the opening show of Lady Gaga's global tour, amid colorful scenes as female and male fans donned outrageous outfits in honor of the US pop diva.
(AFP, 4/27/12)
2012 Apr 28, North Korea began sending electronic GPS jamming signals affecting civilian flights in South Korea amid simmering cross-border tensions.
(AFP, 5/3/12)
2012 May 2, South Korea's parliament approved a long-delayed bill to start trading carbon dioxide emissions in 2015, joining the vanguard of countries battling climate change.
(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 May 5, In South Korea a fierce blaze swept through a karaoke lounge in a busy commercial district of Busan, killing nine people including three Sri Lankans.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 7, South Korean officials said they have seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder.
(AP, 5/7/12)
2012 May 12, In South Korea Expo 2012 opened in the coastal city of Yeosu for a three-month run.
(AP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 13, North Korea stopped transmitting signals which jammed the GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea for two weeks. The signals originated from the North's border city of Kaesong and began on April 28.
(AFP, 5/15/12)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 14, President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Myanmar on the first visit by a South Korean leader since a North Korean attempt to assassinate one of his predecessors in Yangon almost three decades ago. His two-day trip was aimed at promoting economic ties and encouraging the country's recent political reforms.
(AFP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 24, South Korea’s capital unveiled its latest landmark, a controversial $256 million city hall with an undulating glass structure that looms over its preserved colonial-era stone predecessor. It overshadowed the 1926 structure built during Japanese rule.
(AFP, 5/24/12)
2012 May 25, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of 9 South Koreans who demanded Japanese firms Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel pay them for forced labor from 1941-1945.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A2)
2012 May 31, South Korean police said 2 people including a Korean businessman in New Zealand were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of collecting intelligence on military equipment for North Korea.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 May, A South Korean government funded human rights group published a 381-page report containing some 200 face-to-face interviews with defectors who survived political prison camps in North Korea.
(SFC, 5/10/12, p.A5)
2012 Jun 23, South Korea and the USA launched a massive 3-day naval exercise in the tense Yellow Sea, ahead of the 62nd anniversary (June 25) of the outbreak of the Korean War.
(AFP, 6/23/12)
2012 Jun 26, In South Korea hundreds of journalists at Yonhap News Agency, the country’s leading news agency, returned to work ended a three-month strike called to demand fair reporting free of political pressure.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Meteorological officials in Pyongyang and Seoul said parts of North Korea are experiencing the most severe drought since record keeping began nearly 105 years ago. South Korean officials also reported the worst drought in more than a century in some areas after nearly two months without significant rainfall.
(AP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 27, South Korean archaeologist Cho Mi-soon said that the nation’s archeological agency has found the remains of a farming field from the Neolithic period on South Korea's east coast and that the site may be up to 5,600 years old.
(AP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jul 2, South Korea inaugurated Sejong City, a mini-capital to house much of the nation's government, ending a decade of wrangling over a project seen by critics as driven by politics.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 5, South Korean activist No Su-hui (68) was arrested as soon as he set foot on home soil, resisting police in a stunt of defiance after an unapproved, 3-month stay in the North.
(AP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 5, In Panama the International Whaling Commission rejected a request from Denmark for a whaling quota for indigenous groups in Greenland. Two days earlier it approved the renewal of bowhead whale quotas for indigenous subsistence whaling in Alaska and Russia and for St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. The United States says it doesn't support a South Korean plan to restart whale hunting for purportedly scientific purposes.
(AP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 9, A British judge ruled that Samsung's Galaxy tablet was not "cool" enough to be confused with Apple's iPad giving South Korea's Samsung a patent battle win against US rival Apple.
(AFP, 7/9/12)
2012 Jul 10, South Korean police said they were investigating 27 North Korean refugees for swindling private insurance firms out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus medical claims. More than 23,500 North Koreans have settled in the South since the 1950-53 war.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 11, South Korean authorities arrested Lee Sang-deuk (76), the elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak. He was taken to a detention center after a court approved a warrant on bribery allegations.
(AP, 7/11/12)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.37)
2012 Jul 24, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak apologized for a string of corruption scandals implicating his relatives and allies.
(SFC, 7/25/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 10, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak visited islets, locally called Dokdo, also claimed by Japan, where they are called Takeshima.
(SFC, 8/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 16, In South Korea Hanwha Corp. chairman Kim Seung-youn, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, was sentenced to four years prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million) for embezzlement in a ruling that shows a tougher stance against wrongdoing by leaders of the country's mightiest companies.
(AP, 8/16/12)
2012 Aug 18, In South Korea 8 people were stabbed by a man wielding a box cutter after a man and woman confronted him for spitting in a train.
(SSFC, 8/19/12, p.A4)
2012 Aug 24, In San Jose, Ca., Apple won more than $1 billion in a massive US court victory over Samsung, in one of the biggest patent cases in decades, a verdict that could have huge market repercussions. Samsung reacted by saying it will contest the US verdict.
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Aug 28, Typhoon Bolaven pounded South Korea with strong winds and heavy rain as it churned up rough seas that smashed two Chinese fishing ships into rocks, killing at least five fishermen and forcing the coast guard to perform a daring rescue for the survivors. At least 9 other people were killed and 10 were missing as the typhoon knocked out power to hundreds of thousands.
(AP, 8/28/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)(SFC, 8/29/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 3, South Korean Unification Church patriarch Sun Myung Moon (92) died near his home in Gapyeong County.
(AP, 9/3/12)
2012 Sep 17, Typhoon Sanba lashed North and South Korea killing at least 2 people.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 6, A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol.
(AP, 10/6/12)
2012 Oct 7, South Korea announced that a US accord has been altered to allow the South to have ballistic missiles with a range of up to 800 km (500 miles) to better cope with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
(AP, 10/7/12)
2012 Oct 22, South Korean activists floated balloons carrying tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, eluding police who had disrupted an earlier launch attempt due to threats from North Korea.
(AP, 10/22/12)
2012 Nov 2, In South Korea an international team of scientists confirmed that a 5.5-ton elephant named Koshik at the Everland Zoo can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound. Koshik emerged as a star among animal enthusiasts and children in South Korea after Everland Zoo claimed in 2006 that he could imitate words, two years after his trainers noticed the phenomenon.
(AP, 11/2/12)
2012 Dec 13, South Korean media reported that Kenneth Bae (44), a US citizen has been held in North Korea for a month. Security officials there had found a hard disk found in his possession they they believed contained sensitive information.
(SFC, 12/14/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 19, Ruling-party candidate Park Geun-hye (Bahk guhn-hae) was elected South Korean president, becoming the country's first female leader despite her past as the daughter of a divisive dictator.
(AP, 12/19/12)
2012 Dec 22, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. paid about $187,000 to free four South Korean workers and their local colleague abducted on Dec 17. Police learned of the kidnapping payment only after arresting one of three suspected kidnappers.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 25, North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened UN sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 29, South Korea’s outgoing Pres. Lee Myung-bak granted special pardons 55 people including political allies, a longtime friend and dozens of others convicted of corruption and other crimes.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.32)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Feb 25, Park Geun-hye began serving as South Korea's first female president and returned to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her dictator father.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Mar 14, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics unveiled its new Galaxy S4 smart-phone at an event in NYC.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.C5)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 30, North Korea warned Seoul that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Apr 1, South Korea said it will strike back quickly if the North stages any attack.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Apr 3, North Korea barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North.
(AP, 4/3/13)
2013 Apr 4, North Korea warned that its military has been cleared to wage an attack on the US using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons. South Korea's defense minister said North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, but he added that there are no signs that the North is preparing for a full-scale conflict.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Apr 5, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed two of its intermediate-range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or US Pacific bases.
(AP, 4/5/13)
2013 Apr 6, North Korea’s Kaesong industrial complex, the last vestige of cooperation with the South, moved closer to paralysis as nearly 100 South Korean workers went home across a border that Pyongyang has closed in the return direction.
(AP, 4/6/13)
2013 Apr 8, North Korea said it will suspend operations at a factory complex it has jointly run with South Korea, pulling out more than 53,000 North Korean workers and moving closer to severing its last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Apr 9, North Korea urged all foreign companies and tourists in South Korea to evacuate because it says the rival Koreas are on the eve of a nuclear war.
(AP, 4/9/13)
2013 Apr 10, South Korea's foreign minister told lawmakers that the prospect of a North Korean missile test is "considerably high," as Pyongyang calmly prepared to mark the April 15 birthday of its founder, historically a time when it seeks to draw the world's attention with dramatic displays of military power.
(AP, 4/10/13)
2013 Apr 16, North Korea issued new threats against South Korea, vowing "sledge-hammer blows" of retaliation if South Korea did not apologize for anti-North Korean protests the previous day when the North was celebrating the birth of its founding leader.
(Reuters, 4/16/13)
2013 Apr 18, North Korea demanded the lifting of UN sanctions and the end of US-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming talks meant to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 4/18/13)
2013 Apr 21, A South Korean news agency reported that North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch.
(Reuters, 4/21/13)
2013 Apr 24, In the message to its Iranian retailers, Samsung said that it cannot provide access to the store, known as Samsung Apps, in Iran because of "legal barriers," effective May 22. It apologized to customers in emailed statement. The move was seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 Apr 26, Seoul said that it has decided to withdraw the roughly 175 South Koreans still at a jointly run factory complex in North Korea, raising a major question about the survival of the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 4/26/13)
2013 Apr 29, North Korea approved the withdrawal of most of the remaining South Korean personnel at a jointly run industrial park in the North, with a final seven set to stay behind to negotiate unpaid wages for North Korean workers.
(AP, 4/29/13)
2013 Apr 30, South Korean state prosecutors raided the headquarters of the National Intelligence Service to investigate accusations that the spy agency had used its agents and hired bloggers to influence the Dec 19 presidential elections.
(SFC, 5/1/13, p.A2)
2013 May 7, Pres. Obama met with South Korea’s new Pres. Park Geun-hye. Her visit marked the 60th anniversary of South Korea’s alliance with the US. She addressed both houses of Congress the next day.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.58)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 22, In South Korea a suicidal man, jumping to his death from the 11th floor of an apartment building, killed a 5-year-old girl by falling on her as she walked with her parents outside the building in Busan.
(AP, 5/23/13)
2013 May 28, South Korea said it has idled two nuclear power plants after finding that test results for crucial control cables were falsified in a new blow to an industry mired in a graft scandal and safety lapses. With the shutdown of the Shin-Kori No. 2 and Shin-Wolsong No. 1 reactors to replace cables, a total of 10 nuclear plants are now offline.
(AP, 5/28/13)
2013 May, South Korea’s new chief of the state prosecution office urged an "extraordinary" push to collect $143.5 million from former President Chun Doo-hwan (82), who seized power in a 1979 army coup and ruled South Korea until early 1988.
(AP, 6/24/13)
2013 Jun 6, North and South Korea agreed to hold talks on reopening a jointly run factory complex and other cross-border issues, after months of deteriorating relations and a day before a US-China summit in which the North is expected to be a key topic.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 9, Government delegates from North and South Korea held preparatory talks at a "truce village" on their heavily armed border aimed at setting ground rules for a higher-level discussion on easing animosity and restoring stalled rapprochement projects.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 11, South Korea said its first high-level talks in years with North Korea have been scrapped because of a stalemate over who will lead each delegation. The last minister-level meeting between the Koreas occurred in 2007.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jun 25, In South Korea major government and news media websites were shut down after anonymous hackers attacked them on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
(SFC, 6/26/13, p.A3)
2013 Jun 27, In China Pres. Xi Jinping and South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye called for a swift resumption of six-nation North Korean nuclear disarmament talks after a summit that brought together Pyongyang's archrival and its biggest ally.
(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jul 4, North and South Korea agreed to hold talks aimed at reopening a jointly run factory park that was a rare source of cash for the North three weeks after their last attempt at dialogue collapsed in bickering over protocol.
(Reuters, 7/4/13)
2013 Jul 6, Delegates from North and South Korea held talks on restarting a stalled joint factory park that had been a symbol of cooperation between the bitter rivals, but there was no word on whether any significant progress had been made as discussions went into the night.
(AP, 7/6/13)
2013 Jul 6, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 arriving from South Korea crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport. 2 Chinese girls were killed and 70 people injured out of 290 passengers and 16 crew members on the Boeing 777. Another Chinese girl died in a SF hospital on July 12, becoming the 3rd fatality. SFO officials on the same day confirmed that one of the girtls who died on July 6 had been struck and run over by a fire truck.
(SSFC, 7/7/13, p.A1)(Reuters, 7/12/13)(SFC, 7/13/13, p.A1)
2013 Jul 7, North and South Korea agreed to take steps to reopen a jointly run industrial park, including facilities inspections, after the two rivals staged a marathon meeting lasting more than 16 hours to arrange details.
(Reuters, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 10, Talks between the rival Koreas aimed at restarting a stalled inter-Korean factory park ended with no breakthrough. Both sides agreed to meet again next week to discuss restoring what was once a rare symbol of cooperation between the archrivals.
(AP, 7/10/13)
2013 Jul 10, A South Korean court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. of Japan to pay $89,800 to each of four South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during the colonial from 1910 to 1945.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 11, North Korea withdrew offers for talks with South Korea on reunions of separated families and resuming tours to a mountain resort.
(AP, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 30, A South Korean court ruled that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries should pay compensation of $71,800 to each of five South Koreans for forced labor during the colonial period that ended with WWII.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 7, North Korea said it is lifting a ban on operations at a jointly run factory park shuttered since Pyongyang pulled out its 53,000 workers in April amid tensions with South Korea. The rivals agreed to meet next week for talks meant to restart the complex.
(AP, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 11, Jeon Wook-Pyo (68), a South Korean man, escaped North Korea four decades after he was kidnapped by North Korea while fishing near the disputed Yellow Sea border. Jeon was among 25 fishermen aboard two boats that were seized by a North Korean navy ship on December 28, 1972.
(AFP, 9/13/13)
2013 Aug 14, North and South Korea agreed to restart the joint Kaesong industrial park after a series of talks on the fate of the last symbol of economic cooperation.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)
2013 Aug 28, In South Korea agents from the National Intelligence Service raided the homes and offices of an opposition lawmaker and other members of a far-left opposition. 3 people were detained on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
(SFC, 8/29/13, p.A5)
2013 Sep 4, South Korea's parliament voted overwhelmingly on to allow the arrest of Lee Seok-ki, one of its members accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government and introduce a North Korean-style regime. On Feb 17, 2014, Seok-ki was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(Reuters, 9/4/13)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.3)
2013 Sep 4, South Korea’s Samsung set the price of its new Galaxy Gear wristwatch at $299 with sales to begin Sep 25.
(SFC, 9/5/13, p.C3)
2013 Sep 5, North Korea agreed to restore a cross-border military hotline with South Korea.
(SFC, 9/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 6, South Korea extended a ban on Japanese fishery imports to a larger area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant due to growing concerns over radiation contamination.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 11, North and South Korea agreed to restart operations at a jointly run factory park that Pyongyang shut down in April during a torrent of threats, the latest sign of easing animosity between the rivals.
(AP, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 16, South Korea's military shot and killed a man who undertook a rare attempt to enter North Korea by floating across a river that runs near the heavily militarized border.
(Reuters, 9/16/13)
2013 Sep 21, North Korea ordered the indefinite postponement of a scheduled series of reunions for families divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, dealing a setback to months of efforts to improve ties between the Korean neighbors.
(Reuters, 9/21/13)
2013 Oct 25, North Korea repatriated six South Korean citizens and a corpse at a heavily defended border crossing.
(Reuters, 10/25/13)
2013 Nov 3, North Korea publicly executed around 80 people, many for watching smuggled South Korean TV shows. A South Korean newspaper reported the executions on Nov 11.
(AFP, 11/11/13)
2013 Nov 4, South Korea's spy agency said that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralyzing military electronic equipment south of the border.
(AFP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 7, North Korea's security agency said it has arrested a South Korean spy in Pyongyang who intended to rally anti-government forces, a claim that intelligence officials in Seoul quickly called ridiculous and groundless.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 16, In South Korea a helicopter belonging to LG Electronics crashed after its propeller clipped the side of a 38-story apartment building. Its 2 pilots were killed.
(SSFC, 11/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 28, In South Korea a "safety-related action" automatically shut down one of the country’s 23 nuclear reactors, bringing the tally of those closed to six and hiking the chances of power blackouts this winter.
(Reuters, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Dec 3, South Korean lawmakers said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to have dismissed Jang Song Thaek, a powerful uncle and a man key to his rise to power, from his posts.
(Reuters, 12/3/13)(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A3)
2013 Dec 4, The Green Climate Fund, designed as the UN’s most important funding body in the battle on climate change in developing nations, launched its headquarters in South Korea.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Dec 8, South Korea said it has extended its air defense zone to partially overlap with a similar zone declared by China two weeks ago that has sharply raised regional tensions.
(Reuters, 12/8/13)
2013 Dec 12, Iraq signed a $1.1 billion deal to buy 24 multi-role light fighters from South Korea. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said it would deliver the T-50IQ, a variant of its T-50 supersonic aircraft, to Baghdad between 2015 and 2016.
(AFP, 12/12/13)
2013 Dec 22, In South Korea hundreds of riot police stormed into a labor umbrella group's head office in a bid to arrest union leaders. They detained about 130 strikers and confederation members. Workers with the state-run Korea Railroad had walked off the job in protest against a decision to set up a unit to run a high-speed bullet train, which they say will lead to privatization and layoffs.
(Reuters, 12/23/13)
2013 Sheila Miyoshi Jager authored “Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea."
(Econ, 7/27/13, p.68)
2013 The South Korean film “A Wedding Invitation," made by a subsidiary of CJ Corp., became a hit. It was made for the Chinese market with Chinese actors but a Korean crew.
(SFC, 5/9/16, p.68)
2013 South Korea signed the Hague Adoption Convention, which says that children should preferably be adopted by families in their own country.
(Econ, 5/23/15, p.31)
2013 South Korea began to pay child-care allowances and nursery-school fees to all parents regardless of income.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
2014 Jan 2, South Korea's military said it would fight a court ruling quashing its move to kick an officer candidate out of the elite Army Academy for having sex with his girlfriend while on leave.
(Reuters, 1/2/14)
2014 Jan 8, South Korean prosecutors arrested an IT contractor for stealing the personal information of around 20m credit card holders.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2014 Jan 18, South Korea confirmed the outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu and said it would expand the culling of birds to a radius of 3-km (1.9 mile) around a duck farm.
(Reuters, 1/18/14)
2014 Jan 19, South Korean regulator Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed the full scale of personal information theft on more than 100 million South Korean credit cards. Some 20 million people were victims of data theft a three credit card companies.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)(SFC, 10/15/14, p.A5)
2014 Jan 19, In Libya unknown gunmen kidnapped Han Seok-woo, a South Korean trade official, in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 1/20/14)
2014 Jan 20, In South Korea the heads of three big credit card firms apologized and resigned over the largest-ever thefts of customer data.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.62)
2014 Jan 24, North Korea proposed reunions of families separated since the Korean War six decades ago, continuing its latest campaign of reconciliation that included a call for South Korea and the United States to cancel joint military drills.
(Reuters, 1/24/14)
2014 Feb 5, North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold their first reunions in more than three years of families divided by the Korean War.
(SFC, 2/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 6, North Korea threatened to cancel reunions of Korean War-divided families because of upcoming US-South Korean military drills and accused the United States of raising tensions by flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers near the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 12, North Korea and South Korea held their first high-level talks in Panmunjom, their first in seven years.
(SSFC, 2/16/14, p.A6)
2014 Feb 14, North and South Korea agreed in a rare high-level meeting to stop insulting each other and to go ahead with planned reunions of Korean War-divided families next week despite a dispute over upcoming US-South Korean military drills.
(AP, 2/14/14)
2014 Feb 17, In South Korea at least 10 people were killed and 50 more feared trapped after the Manua Ocean Resort auditorium collapsed under heavy snow in the city of Gyeongju. Some 560 students from Busan Univ. Foreign Studies had gathered there for a 2-day freshman orientation.
(AFP, 2/17/14)(SFC, 2/18/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 20, In North Korea dozens of elderly North and South Koreans separated for six decades reunited at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort, weeping and embracing in a rush of words and emotion.
(AP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 27, In North Korea Kim Jung Wook, a South Korean Baptist missionary, told reporters he is sorry for his “anti-state" crimes and appealed to North Korean authorities to show him mercy by releasing him from their custody. He was arrested over four months ago for allegedly trying to establish underground Christian churches.
(AP, 2/27/14)(SFC, 2/28/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 21, In South Korea the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a curvy futuristic $450 million building meant to remake Seoul into a global design capital, opened to the public after years of debate about its impact on a historic city precinct. It was designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met to discuss North Korea's security threat.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, South Korea's military seized a North Korean fishing boat that it said had crossed a disputed maritime border after ignoring warnings to retreat amid growing tension between the two sides.
(Reuters, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 27, South Korea formally approved a request from women rights activists, including one "comfort woman", to meet North Korean counterparts at a conference on Japan's wartime use of sex slaves.
(AFP, 3/27/14)
2014 Mar 31, North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire in disputed waters in an apparent new round of saber-rattling by Pyongyang during annual US-South Korean military exercises.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Apr 4, South Korean rescuers recovered the bodies of two North Korean sailors, pulled three survivors and were searching for 11 others missing after their cargo ship sank off South Korea's coast. The Mongolian-flagged ship was carrying 16 North Korean crew members when it sent a distress signal in international waters about 130 km (80 miles) south of the southern port city of Yeosu.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Apr 15, South Korean police charged a man for the murder of his 2-year-old son after he confessed to suffocating the child so he could leave the house to go back to playing games at an Internet cafe.
(Reuters, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 16, In South Korea some 274 people were missing after the sinking of the Sewol passenger ferry in the Yellow Sea. It carried 475 passengers and crew, mostly high school students from Danwon High School in Ansan, on an overnight trip to Jeju island. Only 174 were rescued. On July 18 the confirmed death toll was 294 with 10 still missing. A body recovered on Oct 28 raised the toll to 295.
(AP, 4/16/14)(AP, 4/17/14)(SSFC, 4/20/14, p.A4)(Econ, 4/19/14, p.37)(AFP, 7/18/14)(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Apr 17, In South Korea Kang Min-gyu (52), the vice-principal of a South Korean high school who accompanied hundreds of pupils on a ferry that capsized a day earlier, committed suicide.
(Reuters, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 18, South Korean prosecutors sought arrest warrants for the captain, and two crew members of the ferry that capsized two days before with hundreds of children on board. Lee Joon-Seok and most of his 28 crew managed to escape the ferry.
(AFP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 19, In South Korea Captain Lee Joon-seok (68) and two crew members of the Sewol ferry that capsized on April 16 were arrested. The confirmed death toll rose to 32 with some 270 people still missing.
(AP, 4/19/14)
2014 Apr 22, In South Korea the confirmed death toll from the April 16 disaster off the southern coast reached 113 with about 190 people were still missing.
(AP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, In South Korea the confirmed death toll from the April 16 disaster off the southern coast reached 156 with about 150 people were still missing.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 25, President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned Pyongyang that it could face tougher sanctions if it follows through with threats to launch a fourth nuclear test.
(AP, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 27, South Korea's PM Chung Hong-won resigned over the government's handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry Sewol, which sank April 16.
(AP, 4/27/14)
2014 Apr, In South Korea private first-class Yoon Seung-ju (21) died in a hazing incident. In Sep military prosecutors charged four soldiers with homicide. On Oct 30 six soldiers were sentenced to up to 45 years in prison for bullying and beating their subordinate.
(AP, 9/2/14)(AP, 10/30/14)
2014 May 2, South Korea suffered its second serious transport accident in just over two weeks when a subway train in the capital, Seoul, crashed into a train at a station, injuring 200 people although no one was killed.
(Reuters, 5/2/14)
2014 May 3, South Korea’s confirmed death toll from the April 16 ferry disaster reached 236 with 66 people were still missing.
(AFP, 5/3/14)
2014 May 5, In South Korea divers retrieved 12 more bodies from the Sewol ferry, raising the death toll to 260 with 42 people still missing.
(AP, 5/514)
2014 May 6, In South Korea a civilian diver involved in searches for dozens of missing people from the April 16 Sewol ferry disaster died. Other divers picked up efforts to retrieve more bodies from the sunken ship.
(AP, 5/6/14)
2014 May 7, South Korea’s coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol — not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 9, South Korean police arrested Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd. His company owns the Sewol ferry that sank and left more than 300 people dead or missing, and authorities worried he may destroy evidence.
(AP, 5/9/14)
2014 May 14, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. apologized and promised compensation to chip factory workers who suffered cancers linked to chemical exposure, a rare win for families and activists seven years after the death of a 23-year-old employee from leukemia galvanized a movement to hold the company to account.
(AP, 5/14/14)
2014 May 19, South Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye formally apologized for the April 16 ferry disaster that killed about 300 people, mostly school children, and said she would dismantle the coast guard for failing in its duties.
(Reuters, 5/19/14)
2014 May 21, South Korea offered a $50,000 reward for information about Yoo Byung-eun (73), a mysterious missing billionaire, who authorities say owns a ferry that sank last April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. Yoo faced allegations of tax evasion, embezzlement and professional negligence.
(AP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 22, North and South Korean warships exchanged artillery fire in disputed waters off the western coast, in the latest sign of rising animosity between the bitter rivals in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/14)
2014 May 26, South Korea and China agreed recent nuclear activity by North Korea posed a serious threat to the peace and stability of the region and Pyongyang must not conduct a nuclear test, after a meeting of their top diplomats in Seoul.
(Reuters, 5/26/14)
2014 May 28, In South Korea a fire, believed set by a dementia patient (81), blazed through a ward of Hyosarang Hospital for the elderly in Jangseong county and killed 22 people, mostly from smoke inhalation. On Nov 21 the dementia patient (81) was convicted of arson and manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
(AP, 5/28/14)(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 May 30, South Korean pop star Psy and his irrepressible "Gangnam Style" became the first YouTube video to surpass 2 billion views, crossing the mark around shortly before midnight EDT.
(AP, 5/31/14)
2014 Jun 5, In South Korea a victim from the April 16 sunken Sewol ferry was retrieved in waters 40 km (25 miles) from the capsized vessel, raising the death toll to 289.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 11, Thousands of South Korean police and prosecutors raided a sprawling religious compound for a 2nd time in their search for Yoo Byung-un, an elderly businessman linked to the April 16 Sewol ferry disaster.
(Reuters, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 12, Thousands of South Korean police raided the compound of a splinter religious group for the second day in a row as part of a manhunt for a fugitive businessman wanted over April's ferry disaster.
(AFP, 6/12/14)
2014 Jun 12, South Korean police found the body of fugitive billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-un (73) in an agricultural field in the southern South Korean city of Suncheon. He was sought over April's ferry disaster that left more than 300 people dead or missing. The discovery was not made public until July 22 following DNA confirmation.
(AP, 7/22/14)(Reuters, 7/23/14)
2014 Jun 13, South Korea's Pres. Park Geun-hye replaced seven Cabinet members in an apparent bid to win back sagging public trust in her administration after April's ferry disaster.
(AP, 6/13/14)
2014 Jun 21, A South Korean soldier was at large after killing 5 comrades and wounding another five at the border with North Korea.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 22, South Korean troops exchanged fire with a runaway soldier who was surrounded in a forest after he killed five comrades near his North Korea border outpost, and brought in his parents to persuade him to surrender.
(AP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 23, In South Korea a massive manhunt ended when a 22-year-old sergeant, surnamed Yim, shot himself in the upper left chest as his father and brother approached, pleading with him to surrender. Yim was hospitalized. He had killed 5 comrades on June 21 near his North Korea border outpost. On Feb 3, 2015, Yim was sentenced to death.
(AP, 6/23/14)(AP, 2/3/15)
2014 Jul 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping began a two-day visit to Seoul. The leaders of China and South Korea simultaneously snubbed North Korea, bolstered their already booming trade relationship and gave the US and Japan a look at Beijing's growing influence south of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 3, In South Korea the display manufacturing unit of Samsung Electronics Co. said it secured approval from Vietnam to build a $1 billion factory in the Southeast Asian country.
(AP, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 9, In France Yoo Somena, daughter of billionaire Yoo Byung-eun, faced extradition to South Korea based on suspicions of embezzling $8 million between 2004 and 2013. Yoo Byung-eun is the South Korean fugitive businessman believed linked to a deadly April ferry disaster.
(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 17, In South Korea a firefighting helicopter crashed near an apartment complex and school in the southern city of Gwangju, killing five.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 17, In Myanmar more than 700 workers protested in front of the South Korean Embassy to demand officials help them after a Korean-owned factory closed without paying their wages.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 25, South Korean police arrested Yoo Dae-gyun, the son of recently deceased Yoo Byung-eun, owner of the April 16 ferry disaster.
(SFC, 7/26/14, p.A3)
2014 Aug 3, Tropical Storm Nakri made landfall on South Korea and left at least 10 people dead.
(www.earthweek.com/2014/ew140808/ew140808e.html)
2014 Aug 6, China executed two South Koreans, convicted of smuggling 14 kg (30 lb) of methamphetamines from North Korea in 2010 and 2011, and planned to soon execute a third.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said China has confirmed it had blocked "some foreign messaging applications through which terrorism-related information" was circulating. These included KakaoTalk and Line. It named other blocked apps as Didi, Talk Box and Vower. The service disruptions in China began a month ago.
(Reuters, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 9, Japan and South Korea vowed to "deepen communication" in the future during a rare meeting in Myanmar ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 11, South Korea said it would provide $13.3 million in funding for UN humanitarian projects in North Korea -- its second indirect aid package for the North in a month.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 13, At the Int’l. Congress of mathematicians in South Korea, Stanford Prof. Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born mathematician, became the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal for her work in understanding the mathematical symmetry of curved surfaces and saddle-shaped spaces.
(SFC, 8/14/14, p.D1)
2014 Aug 14, South Korea’s Korean Air Lines Co. said will suspend flights to Kenya in a measure to prevent the spread of Ebola.
(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 14, Pope Francis arrived in South Korea for a 5-day visit and left the airport in a compact black Kia that many South Koreans would consider too humble a conveyance for a globally powerful figure. He called for renewed efforts to forge peace on the war-divided Korean Peninsula and for both sides to avoid "fruitless" criticisms and shows of force.
(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs killed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Joseon Dynasty.
(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Aug 17, In South Korea Pope Francis made his strongest gesture yet to reach out to China, saying he wants to improve relations and insisting that the Catholic Church isn't coming in as a "conqueror" but is rather a partner in dialogue.
(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 29, A South Korea-based pageant said that a Myanmar beauty queen, who was stripped of her title for allegedly being rude and dishonest, has run off with the $100,000 jeweled crown. On Sep 2 May Myat Noe (16) said she won't return her bejeweled crown until pageant organizers apologize for calling her a liar and a thief.
(AP, 8/29/14)(AP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 4, South Korea said it would create a joint military unit with the US, as a report suggested the contingent would target North Korea's weapons of mass destruction if a full-scale conflict broke out.
(AFP, 9/4/14)
2014 Sep 5, North Korea said it will send back a South Korean man who entered the North illegally. Kim Sang-geun reportedly entered North Korea through a third country after having unspecified difficulties living in the South.
(AP, 9/5/14)
2014 Sep 7, In South Korea Kwon Ri-sae (23) died at a hospital in Suwon, just south of Seoul. She was the 2nd Ladies' Code band member to die following a car accident on Sep 3.
(AP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 16, South Korean border guards arrested an American man who they believe was attempting to swim across a river to rival North Korea.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 19, In South Korea the opening ceremony for the Asian Games was held in in Incheon. 45 nations and regions participated in the events.
(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 21, In South Korea a small group of activists launched tens of thousands of leaflets by helium balloon, just days after the North sent a letter to the presidential office demanding such exercises be halted.
(AFP, 9/23/14)
2014 Sep 24, In South Korea Qatari basketballers forfeited a women's match against Mongolia and considered withdrawing from the Asian Games competition after being refused permission to wear a hijab.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, South Korea said it will buy 40 F-35A fighter jets from Lockheed Martin for about $7 billion.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 4, North Korea's presumptive No. 2 and other members of Pyongyang's inner circle met with South Korean officials in Seoul at the close of the Asian Games in the rivals' highest level face-to-face talks in five years.
(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 8, South Korean prosecutors indicted Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato for defamation of President Park Geun-hye over an article he wrote about her personal life and whereabouts on April 3, the day of a deadly ferry disaster. On Dec 17, 2015, a Seoul court cleared Kato of the charges.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(SSFC, 12/20/15, p.A4)
2014 Oct 10, North and South Korea traded machine-gun and rifle fire after South Korean activists released anti-Pyongyang propaganda balloons across the border.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 13, South Korean messaging app Kakao Talk said it will stop fully cooperating with authorities seeking to access private messages as part of a government crackdown on online criticism.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 15, The first military talks between North and South Korea in more than three years ended with no agreement, with the rivals failing to narrow their differences on how to ease animosity following two shooting incidents last week.
(AP, 10/15/14)
2014 Oct 17, In South Korea 16 people were killed at a open-air pop concert where the group 4Minute was performing when the cover of a ventilation shaft they were standing on gave way. The man involved in planning the pop concert was found dead on Oct 18 in an apparent suicide.
(Reuters, 10/17/14)(AP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 19, North and South Korean troops exchanged gunfire along their fortified border in the second such shooting in less than 10 days.
(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 25, South Korean activists launched balloons to send leaflets to North Korea with messages critical of its leader, ignoring threats of military action from Pyongyang and a plea by Seoul not to jeopardize efforts to improve ties with the North.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Nov 5, A South Korean court convicted three relatives of the sunken Sewol ferry's owner and 13 other associates for corruption, about four months after the tycoon was found dead on the run. Yoo Dae-kyoon (43), the oldest son of ferry owner Yoo Byung-eun, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to three years in prison.
(AP, 11/5/14)(SFC, 11/6/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 7, South Korea's National Assembly approved plans to disband the coast guard in the wake of criticism over its failure to rescue hundreds of passengers during the sinking of a ferry in April.
(AP, 11/7/14)
2014 Nov 10, South Korea said it has agreed to sign a free trade deal with China that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades but won't include rice or autos.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 11, In South Korea the captain of the Sewol ferry that capsized in April killing 304 passengers was jailed for 36 years after a court found him guilty of negligence, but was acquitted of homicide. The court convicted the ship's chief engineer of homicide for not aiding two injured fellow crew members and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. 13 surviving crew members of the ferry were found guilty of various charges, including negligence, and handed down prison terms ranging from five to 20 years.
(Reuters, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 12, South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries said it had signed a $1.94 billion deal to build offshore oil and gas processing platforms in the United Arab Emirates.
(AFP, 11/12/14)
2014 Nov 20, A South Korean court sentenced Kim Han-sik (71), president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, to 10 years in prison over the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed more than 300 people, mostly high school students. On May 12 an appeals court reduced the sentence to seven years.
(AP, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A3)
2014 Nov 25, Japanese police arrested four South Korean men at a harbor where ferries depart for Busan on suspicion of stealing an ancient Buddha statue. A 5th man was arrested the next day. The stolen "Birth of Buddha" statue dates to sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Dec 1, Rescuers searched for more than 50 people missing after a South Korean fishing ship they were working on sank amid high waves in the freezing waters of the Bering Sea. Seven fishermen were rescued. The crew included 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector. After two day only 12 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 12/1/14)(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 24, South Korean prosecutors brought charges against the founder and CEO of controversial smartphone taxi app Uber for operating an illegal cab service, the latest roadblock for the California-based firm.
(AFP, 12/24/14)
2014 Dec 26, In South Korea 3 workers died after apparently inhaling toxic gas at a construction site for a nuclear plant being built by South Korea's monopoly nuclear power company.
(AP, 12/26/14)
2014 Dec 30, A South Korean court approved the arrest of Cho Hyun-ah (40), the daughter of Korean Air Lines’ chairman and a former Korean Air Lines Co. executive, who delayed a Dec 5 flight over a bag of macadamia nuts.
(AP, 12/30/14)
2014 Euny Hong authored “the Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World through Pop Culture."
(Econ, 8/9/14, p.69)
2014 In South Korea Han Sang-deok was freed by police after 20 years working without pay on a Sinui island salt farm. Dozens of disabled men were liberated this year from salt farms on remote islands in the southwest. A months-long investigation by The Associated Press found that slavery still thrives.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2014 South Korea introduced its Basic Pension Scheme.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.14)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korean military's "cyber army" has boosted its numbers to 6,000 troops.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker, said it plans to spend 81 trillion won ($73.7 billion) over the next four years on factories, research and a new headquarters.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 14, South Korean prosecutors arrested leftist activist Hwang Sun in Seoul for allegedly praising archrival North Korea.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 2, In South Korea former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir: "President's Time" was published. Lee wrote that late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large shipments of food and fertilizer as a condition of the talks.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 9, Former South Korean spy chief Won Sei-hoon was sent to prison for three years after being found guilty of ordering an illicit online campaign to support then-ruling party candidate and current President Park Geun-hye ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Korea an onboard tantrum dubbed "nut rage" culminated in a one-year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 16, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's appointment of Lee Wan Koo in a 148-128 vote.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 26, South Korea’s Constitutional court struck down a 62-year-old law that made adultery an offense punishable by up to two years in prison.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Mar 3, South Korea passed the "Anti-corruption and Conflicts of Interest Act," also known as the Kim Young-ran act after the then-chairperson of the 2012 Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr5kdv7)
2015 Mar 5, In South Korea a knife attack by Kim Ki-jong (55), an anti-US protester screaming demands for uniting North and South Korea, injured US ambassador Mark Lippert. The slashing left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves. In September Kim Ki-jong was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)(SFC, 9/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Apr 12, In Libya gunmen opened fire early today at the local guards of the South Korean Embassy in Tripoli, killing one of them as well as a civilian who was in the area.
(AP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 14, Japan and South Korea held their first high-level security talks in more than five years despite simmering tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 22, South Korea said it has reached agreement with Washington on revisions to the 41-year-old treaty that governs its commercial nuclear activities.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, North Korea caught Joo Won-moon (21), a South Korean student at NYU, crossing its border from the Chinese side of the Yalu River. He later said that he had intended to be arrested and hoped to bring about better relations between North and South Korea.
(Reuters, 5/2/15)(SFC, 5/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 24, In South Korea thousands of anti-government protesters marched in cities across the country, denouncing the labor policies of the increasingly unpopular President Park Geun-hye.
(AP, 4/24/15)
2015 Apr 25, In South Korea thousands marched in Seoul for the second straight day to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
(AP, 4/25/15)
2015 Apr 27, South Korea's Pres. Park Geun-hye accepted the resignation of PM Lee Wan Koo over a bribery scandal. He has been at the heart of a corruption scandal involving a dead businessman and other high-profile figures.
(AP, 4/27/15)
2015 May 1, Thousands of South Koreans marched in Seoul for a third week to protest government labor policies and the handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people a year ago.
(AP, 5/1/15)
2015 May 13, In South Korea a soldier (24) shot fellow reservists at a mandatory training session in Seoul, killing 2 and injuring two others before killing himself.
(AP, 5/13/15)
2015 May 18, South Korea and India agreed to step up defense cooperation while South Korea pledged $10 billion (6.4 billion pounds) in finance for infrastructure projects as Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived for a visit.
(Reuters, 5/18/15)
2015 May 21, South Korea a third case of MERS, a respiratory virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(Reuters, 5/21/15)
2015 May 24, A group of international women activists crossed the heavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea in what they said was a symbolic act for peace.
(Reuters, 5/24/15)
2015 May 29, South Korea confirmed five MERS cases, bringing the total number of patients infected with the potentially deadly virus to 12, including a man who defied a quarantine protocol and travelled to China.
(AFP, 5/29/15)
2015 May, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea had executed its defense chief by putting him in front of an anti-aircraft gun at a firing range.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korea and China signed a free trade deal that will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods over two decades.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 1, South Korean health officials said more than 680 people are being isolated after having contact with patients infected with the MERS virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 2, South Korea confirmed the country's first two deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome as it fights to contain the spread of the virus.
(AP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 4, South Korea confirmed a third death from MERS. 1,164 schools and kindergartens were reported to be temporarily shut down.
(SFC, 6/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 6, South Korea confirmed nine more cases of the MERS virus, which has killed four people, but said it did not represent a spread of the outbreak as the infected were already in quarantine.
(AFP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 6, At the finals for the DARPA Robotic Challenge in Pomona, Ca., a robot named Hubo, developed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, (KAIST) won the $2 million first place prize.
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.77)
2015 Jun 7, South Korea bowed to public pressure and identified 24 health facilities where infections took place or MERS patients visited. It reported 14 confirmed new cases of MERS and a 5th death.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)
2015 Jun 9, South Korea reported its seventh death from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the government said it hoped to end the crisis this week. Eight new infections brought the total number of cases to 95.
(AFP, 6/9/15)
2015 Jun 11, In South Korea Bank of Korea policymakers cut the policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.5 percent, the second rate cut this year.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 11, South Korea reported a 10th death from the MERS virus. Officials said they believe the disease has peaked.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 12, In South Korea 3 MERS patients in their 70s died, raising the country's number of MERS-related deaths to 13. Authorities temporarily closed two hospitals amid persistent fears over the MERS virus outbreak.
(AP, 6/12/15)
2015 Jun 13, South Korea recorded its 14th death from the MERS virus and a dozen new infections.
(AP, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new MERS cases, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died. The Samsung Medical Center in Seoul said it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS after more than 70 cases were traced to it.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 16, In South Korea the death toll in the MERS outbreak increased to 19 even as schools reopened and people recovered from the virus.
(AP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 15, A North Korean soldier in his late teens defected to South Korea walking across their shared border.
(SFC, 6/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Jun 18, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's choice for prime minister. The National Assembly approved the appointment of Hwang Kyo-ahn by a vote of 156-120.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 18, In South Korea the death toll from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) increased to 23.
(AP, 6/18/15)
2015 Jun 21, South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
(Reuters, 6/21/15)
2015 Jun 23, North Korea's highest court sentenced two South Koreans accused of spying to hard labor for life.
(Reuters, 6/23/15)
2015 Jul 1, In northeastern China a bus carrying a group of South Koreans fell off a highway bridge, killing 7 South Koreans and 2 Chinese.
(AP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 2, South Korea reported two new cases of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, after four days in which no cases were spotted.
(AFP, 7/2/15)
2015 Jul 3, In South Korea an explosion killed 6 workers at a chemical plant run by Hanwha Chemical Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan.
(AP, 7/3/15)
2015 Jul 4, South Korea found a North Korean ship adrift and sinking with 5 sailors near the island of Ulleungdo off of South Korea’s northeastern coast. On July 7 South Korea said three of the sailors had defected to South Korea.
(SFC, 7/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 5, A dramatic breach at Italian surveillance company Hacking Team soon laid bare the details of government cyberattacks worldwide. Hacking Team's spyware was used by a total of 97 intelligence or investigative agencies in 35 countries, according to South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Lee Byoung Ho, who explained himself to lawmakers on July 14 after it became clear his organization was among the Milan-based company's clients.
(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 9, South Korean officials said young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a "reign of terror" that far exceeds the bloodshed of his dictator father's early rule.
(AP, 7/9/15)
2015 Jul 14, South Korea sent back two North Korean fishermen who were rescued from South Korean waters but said it would not return three others who requested asylum.
(AP, 7/14/15)
2015 Jul 24, South Korea’s National Assembly passed an amended criminal procedure law, removing a 25-year statute of limitations on first-degree murder.
(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 28, South Korea said it is now virtually free of the deadly MERS virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly 200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
(AP, 7/28/15)
2015 Aug 10, South Korea restarted propaganda broadcasts across the border with rival North Korea for the first time in 11 years in retaliation for the North allegedly planting land mines last week that maimed two South Korean soldiers.
(AP, 8/10/15)
2015 Aug 12, In South Korea Choi Hyun-yeol (80) set himself on fire during a protest calling for Japan to apologize for forcing Korean girls and women to work in military brothels during World War II. He was in critical condition with burns to his neck, face, and upper torso.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 12, A South Korean media report said Choe Yong Gon (63), North Korea's vice premier, was executed by firing squad this year after showing discontent with the policies of the country's leader Kim Jong Un.
(Reuters, 8/12/15)
2015 Aug 20, South Korea fired tens of artillery rounds toward North Korea after the North launched shells to protest South Korea's anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the border.
(Reuters, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 21, North and South Korea appeared headed toward another clash, as Seoul refused an ultimatum that it halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Aug 22 afternoon or face military action, and North Korea said its troops were on a war footing.
(Reuters, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, North Korea and South Korea held their first high-level talks in nearly a year at a border village to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, North and South Korea resumed top-level talks on avoiding a threatened military clash, even as Seoul accused Pyongyang of undermining the process with provocative naval and land deployments.
(AFP, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 24, South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded that North Korea apologize over recent landmine blasts, even as the bitter rivals held marathon talks to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula back to the brink of armed conflict.
(Reuters, 8/24/15)
2015 Aug 25, North and South Korea agreed early today to end a military standoff that sparked an exchange of artillery fire and had ratcheted up tension on one of the world's most heavily-fortified borders.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Sep 5, A South Korean fishing charter boat capsized leaving at least 10 people dead and eight missing. The 9.77-ton Dolphin went missing off the southwest coast near the island of Chuja. 3 survivors were rescued the next day.
(AFP, 9/6/15)
2015 Sep 7, North and South Korea started talks at a border village on resuming the reunions of families separated by the Korean War.
(AP, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 24, South Korea-based Samsung Semiconductor dedicated its new 1.1 million-sq.-foot North American headquarters in San Jose, Ca.
(SFC, 9/26/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 10, In South Korea Iranian director Hadi Mohaghegh's "Immortal" and "Walnut Tree" from Kazakhstan's Yerlan Nurmukhambetov were named the winners of the New Currents award for first- and second-time filmmakers at the 20th Busan International Film Festival.
(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 17, It was reported that hundreds of South Korean scholars have declared they are boycotting the writing of state-issued history textbooks out of concern that that they will teach distorted views on the country's recent past.
(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 20, Korean families, separated by the Korean War, began to reunite at the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea.
(SFC, 10/22/15, p.A4)(SSFC, 10/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Oct 24, Hundreds of S. Koreans crossed the border to North Korea for the last set of reunions this year. In the first round of reunions earlier in the week, about 390 South Koreans traveled to the resort to meet with 180 North Korean relatives.
(AP, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 31, South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to discuss trade issues, a day before their three-way summit with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe that aims to repair relations strained by historical and territorial matters.
(AP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 4, A South Korean government commission said that the remains of nearly 2,750 people, believed to be Koreans who were forced to work in Japan in the WWII era, have been found.
(SFC, 11/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 13, In South Korea eight men took the government to court after spending years as slaves on salt farms on rural islands off the southwest coast. Some were enslaved for as many as twenty years.
(SFC, 11/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 14, In South Korea tens of thousands marched in central Seoul with diverse grievances against the government. Police detained at least 50 people.
(SSFC, 11/15/15, p.A3)
2015 Nov 22, Kim Young-sam (b.1927), former president of South Korea (1993-1998), died in Seoul.
(SFC, 11/23/15, p.C4)
2015 Nov 23, In South Korea a US military helicopter crashed during a routine training mission, killing both pilots on board.
(AP, 11/23/15)
2015 Nov 25, A new nuclear treaty with the United States governing South Korea's commercial nuclear activities during the next 20 years went into effect. The treaty, which replaces a previous accord reached in 1972, opens the possibility of South Korea gaining the ability to enrich uranium to produce non-weapons-grade nuclear fuel depending on future negotiations with the United States.
(AP, 11/25/15)
2015 Nov 26, North and South Korean officials met for talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom after the two sides signed an agreement in which Pyongyang expressed regret over landmine blasts near the border that wounded two South Korean soldiers.
(Reuters, 11/26/15)
2015 Dec 5, Thousands of South Koreans, many wearing masks, marched in Seoul against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who had compared masked protesters to terrorists after clashes with police broke out at a rally last month.
(AP, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 10, South Korean police detained Han Sang-gyun, the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, for his alleged involvement in organizing antigovernment protests that turned violent last month. Sang-gyun had been holed up in a Buddhist temple for a month.
(SFC, 12/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 10, German authorities said five South Koreans have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a relative in an exorcism ritual attempting to "expel a demon" at a Frankfurt hotel. On Feb 20, 2017, the five South Koreans were convicted. The main defendant was sentenced to six years in prison. Four others were given suspended sentences of between 18 months and two years.
(AP, 12/10/15)(AP, 2/20/17)
2015 Dec 12, The first high-level talks between North and South Korea since an August agreement to end an armed confrontation across their border ended in Kaesong inconclusively.
(Reuters, 12/12/15)(SFC, 12/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Dec 28, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement to resolve the issue of "comfort women", as those who were forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels were euphemistically known, which has long plagued ties between the neighbors.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 Blaine Harden authored “The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom." (see South Korea Sep 21, 1953).
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.78)
2015 South Korea’s Supreme Court conferred official status to a migrant workers’ union.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.34)
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