Korea

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— For other places called Korea, see: Korea (disambiguation)

Korea

Map of Korea

Korea (한국/韓國/Hanguk, used by South / 조선/朝鮮/Joseon, used by North) is a formerly unified country, situated on the Korean Peninsula in northern East Asia, bordering on China to the northwest and Russia to the north. It is populated by a homogeneous ethnic group, the Koreans. Two countries, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) have replaced it since the end of World War II in 1945, when the once-unified state was divided.

Korea was partitioned into two halves following World War II. South Korea is western leaning and has begun to develop in the direction of liberal democracy. North Korea is a Communist state, often referred to as Stalinist and totalitarian. The Unification Flag is often used to represent Korea at international sporting events, but is not an official flag of either country.

Overview

Paleolithic and archaeologic evidence indicates that early humans have lived in Korea for 2.5 million years and humans have lived in Korea for at least 70,000 years. For much of the past millennium, Korea was politically a single state, which led to the development of a fairly homogeneous and unique culture. Korea is characterized by a distinct people (Koreans) and language (Korean).

In ancient Chinese texts Korea is referred to as Kumsu Kangsan(금수강산,錦水江山), literally meaning "the river and mountains are embroidered on silk". In addition, the Chinese credited the Koreans with being the producers of some of the best silk in the world. During the 7th and 8th centuries there existed, via both land and sea routes, trading networks between Korea and Arabia. Koreans used wooden printing blocks by 751. The publication technique of using metal movable type was invented in Korea as early as 1232 (although clay prints were invented by Pi Sheng about 200 years earlier in China), long before Johann Gutenberg developed metal letterset type in Europe. During the Goryeo period, the silk industry became widespread and pottery made with blue-green celadon glazes became a Korean specialty. Korea achieved rapid cultural growth during the Joseon era, developing a culture distinct from Ming China. The Joseon era also presided over progress in traditional arts and crafts, such as pottery with white celadon glazes, finer silk and better paper, beautiful fans and clothes, and the completion of the Korean alphabet, hangul. Also during this time the first ironclad warships in the world were developed and deployed in Korea.

Korea is currently divided into the western leaning capitalist Republic of Korea (ROK) and the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). This originally temporary division occurred after Japan's defeat in 1945, which put an end to Japan's annexation in 1910 and 35-year of occupation of Korea. The Korean War (1950 - 1953) created a chasm in both cultural and economic systems that remains to this day.

After the Korean War, North Korea, although devastated by the war, was able to rebound economically in a relatively short period of time, and its economy was stronger than that of the South's until being overtaken in the 70's. Since the 90's the loss of markets in Eastern Europe after the Cold War, poor decision making on the part of the North Korean leadership combined with floods and other natural disasters have left the country largely dependent on foreign aid. A famine in the late 90s is likely to have left millions of people dead, although due to the North's extreme secrecy, reliable statistics are difficult to come by (Meredith Woo-Cummings, The Political Ecology of Famine: The North Korean Catastrophe and Its Lessons, Tokyo: Asian Dev. Bank Inst., 2001). In contrast, South Korea after the war remained impoverished into the 60s, when the dictator-president Park Chung Hee funneled investment into the large conglomerates or chae-bol. It is now the 12th largest economy in the world. Both Korean states proclaim eventual reunification as a goal; that is, the restoration of Korea as a single state. Even though Korea is no longer one nation in real political terms, it is very much alive in the minds of Koreans and as an ethno-cultural space critical to Korean national identity.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Korea

The nation uses vibrant colors for its festivities which is said to be due to Mongolian influences. It is common to see bright hues of pink, yellow, and green on objects and material that define traditional Korean motifs [1]. Family ties are an important aspect of familial relations, not excluding relations involving business. Bowing is a custom that is proper and expected among Koreans as a way of greeting one another, although it is typically reserved for special occasions in the modern age. Korean values spring from a large number of influences, including Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, ancestor worship, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity and authoritarianism [2]. Although Korea is sometimes described as a Confucian society, this would be an over-simplification of the culture akin to describing the culture of China or Japan in the same terms. Korean cuisine is marked by its traditional dish called kimchi (see also Korean cuisine) which uses a distinctive process of preserving vegetables by fermentation, developed before electric refrigeration existed. Chili peppers are also commonly used in Korean cuisine, which has given it a reputation for being 'spicy'.

Korea in sporting events

File:Korea unified flag.png

Unification Flag

A unified Korean team competed under the Unification Flag in 1991 in both the 41st World Table Tennis Championship in Chiba, Japan and in the 6th World Youth Soccer Championship in Lisbon, Portugal. A unified Korean team marched under the Unification Flag in the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but the North and South Korean national teams competed separately in sporting events.

Demographics

(see also: Demographics of South Korea) The Korean Peninsula is populated almost exclusively by ethnic Koreans, although a significant minority of ethnic Chinese (about 20,000 [3]) exists in South Korea, and small communities of ethnic Chinese and Japanese are said to exist in North Korea ([4]). While the Koreas are populated by almost entirely Koreans, there is a large foreign workforce in South Korea estimated at over half a million. The combined population (including North and South Korea) of the Korean Peninsula is about 71,000,000 people.

Geography

Korea is located on the Korean Peninsula in North-East Asia. It is bound by two countries and three seas. To the northwest, the Yalu River separates Korea from China and to the north, the Tumen River separates Korea from Russia. The Yellow Sea is to the west, the South China Sea is to the south, and the Sea of Japan (East Sea) is to the east of Korea. Notable islands include Jeju-do, Ulleung-do, and Liancourt Rocks.

Names

Template:Koreanname

Main article: Names of Korea [5]

In Korean, Korea is referred to as "Hanguk" (한국; 韓國) in the south and "Chosŏn" (조선; 朝鮮) in the north. In addition, South Koreans also use "Hanguk" to refer only to South Korea and North Koreans also use "Chosŏn" to refer only to North Korea. The western name "Korea" or "Corea" (from Goryeo (고려; 高麗)) is a neutral name often used by both countries in international contexts. There are complex historical reasons for the use of all three names, of which the following paragraph is a summary. The Chinese characters of Goryeo are pronounced Gaoli in Chinese, which is why Marco Polo marked today's Korea as Cauli in his Travels.

Before the Three Kingdoms Period "Old Joseon" was the first Korean state. Then in the 660s, the kingdoms of Baekje;백제 and Goguryeo;고구려 came under the control of Silla, and Korea was called "Silla" (or Unified Silla;신라or 통일신라 by modern historians) from then until the 10th century. In 936, the newly formed kingdom of Goryeo;고려 replaced Shilla. From Goryeo came "Cauli" (the Italian spelling of the name Marco Polo gave to the country in his Travels), from which came the English names "Corea" and the now more commonly used "Korea". (For the Corea-vs.-Korea debate, please see Names of Korea.) In 1392, the Joseon Dynasty; 조선 came to power and the country was renamed "Joseon" (Dae Joseon-guk 대조선국 in full, or "Great Joseon Nation"). In 1897, the Korean Empire (Daehan Jeguk 대한제국) was formed, reviving the name "Han". In 1910, Korea was annexed by Japan and the name reverted to "Joseon" ("Chosen" in Japanese). In 1919, a Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was formed in Shanghai, which used the name "Republic of Korea" (Daehan Minguk대한민국), a modified form of the name "Korean Empire". After independence from Japan and the country's division in 1945, the southern American-occupied zone became the "Republic of Korea" (or Hanguk for short in South Korean) in 1948, due to the influence of the non-Communist Shanghai group. Meanwhile, the northern Soviet-occupied zone became the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (or Chosŏn for short in North Korean) under the control of Kim Il-sung, who wished to use the name "Chosŏn" for its ancient and northern connotations.

See History of South Korea and History of North Korea for the post-war period.

Represented Airport

Incheon National Airport

External links

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