The Three Hans- Why Korea's Native Name is Daehan

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Why Korea's name is Daehan? Well, to those who don't know the ancient characters of hanja which make up 70% of the Korean language, Daehan means, in literal translation, "Large Han". What is this "Han", then?

Not to be confused with the ethnic Han Chinese (Basically the people living in current People's Republic of China excluding the province of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uighur, Tibet, Qinghai, etc.), the "Han"s, are three "United" kingdoms in peace, in which they themselves are united, too. The three Hans are Mahan (마한), Jinhan (진한), and Byunhan (변한).

Idh0854/Wikipedia (CC)

The Mahan Confederacy is mostly the area of the Baekjae Dynasty that existed after it. It was a council of tribal kings and leaders, then mostly the council was led by Onjo, the brother of the second king of the Gorguyeo Dynasty in the north, who decided to move South and make his own kingdom. Later, he conquered all of the area of Mahan and later led the council of Kings.

The Jinhan Confederacy was the area of the 12 kingdoms, currently North Gyeongsang Province, in which later got united by the Saroguks, based in Gyeongju City, and became the Shinla Dynasty, Shinla had three families choosing the leader, rotating by the Parks, Suks, and Kims, which all had family relations with each other. Later, the Kim family only had kings.

Then comes Byunhan. later the short-living Gaya Dynasty and then part of Shinla.  Gaya was famous for a lot of natural resources, especially Iron and metal, in which they used it to make the most strongest weopons in East Asia and sell some of the resources to the Japanese.

Now, where does the name "Daehan" first get used? In October 12th, 1897, King Gojong of the Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) decided China was to weak to give tributes to, and decided to modernize the nation so it won't fall behind huge empires. Yes, the Korean Empire in Korean is "Daehan Jaeguk", meaning "Daehan Empire". The Republic of Korea in Korean is "대한민국", "Daehan Minguk", meaning Daehan People's nation= Republic of Daehan. North Korea's government prefers to use everything as "Joeson", not "Daehan", though.

Why Hanguk is sometimes used in South Korea, is because it acts as an abbreviation for "Daehan Minguk". (That's why it's Hangook Tires, Canada's No. 1 Tire, not Daehan Mingook Tires!)
You get it? Hangook Tires actually advertised their brand like that in Canada!

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Say Hi to a Secure Blog!

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Hello readers,

Recently Google Blogger introduced a setting to allow bloggers to change their website into an "HTTPS". That is a Secure HTTP.

That means, http://koreaninfoguide.blogspot.com will be:
https://koreaninfoguide.blogspot.com

And you can read the posts safer!

Thanks!
-Andy Moon

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Can Foreigners Enter North Korea?

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Ah, North Korea, the Hermit Kingdom. Do you know who can enter, this mysterious, human-rights violating nation?

To start with, South Koreans definitely cannot enter North Korea. However, there are three options for South Koreans if they really want to step on North Korean soil. The first one is, to become the president or diplomat, or any some sort of high-official job in South Korea, then visit the North for peace talks. The second one, is to go to North of the North Korean border, and climb the Paekdu Mountain (백두산), the tallest in the Korean peninsula with being 2744 meters (9002 ft). The final option, is to become a tourist of the Mt. Kumgang Tourist city, with the beautiful views of Mt. Kumgang, bordering South Korea. However, due to the end of the friendly "Sunshine Policy" to North Korea in 2007, plus a North Korean explosives exploding the South Korean military ship, leaving 46 dead in 2010, AND 8 months later exploding a South Korean island REALLY close to the North, which killed both soldiers and civilians, made the South Korean government stopped Koreans from paying to visit the tourist area, which meant that for people with South Korean passports, the only way to see the North is very mere, since the new leader Kim Jung-un ripped the unofficial armistice signed by his grandfather in 1953 as well as showing off aggressive plans to invade the North, plus news says that Mt. Paekdu are showing signs that prove that it's going to blow up pretty soon.

Next, Americans and the people of the West. Even though there's a bunch of propaganda about the Americans, since South Korea banned the travel to North Korea and its tourist attractions, North Korea needed money, so at 2010 they let other people visit North Korea at times other than the huge Arirang Mass Games which cost around $1500 USD.  Did you know that the Rungrado May 1st stadium (릉라도 5월 1일 경기장), the Arirang Games is held, is the largest stadium in the world, with being able to hold 150,000 spectators?

Rungrado May 1st Stadium, tophdgallery.com (CC)

Anyways, American tourists can only enter North Korea via plane, not train or boat, as well as car. And recently, North Korean mobile services, in which all tourists had the right to enjoy, were banned from them. Also, the tourists can only stay in the "Foreigner-only" zones, so they can't see what the North Koreans are doing in the "North Koreans only" zones, where they see the children starving to death in the streets the regular activities of the peoples.

Technically, if you have Korean ethnicity but was born in another country so you were a naturalized citizen of a non-Korean nation, you can enter North Korea. South Koreans also acquire the right to travel there when they get citizenship from a nation that is not South Korea. However, be careful, because many Korean Americans got detained inside North Korea. Plus, an American got detained for leaving a bible at a club in Chongjin City. So, try to act like Chinese, the friendly communist brother of Korea- wait, that doesn't help, since North Korea's relations with the People's Republic of China are tightening, and the Korean language is not the Chinese, but it came from the same ancestral groups---- you get what I mean.

Thanks for reading this article of "The Korean Story"! Leave your comments below and make sure to subscribe!
Contact me at: thekoreanstory@outlook.com

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The DMZ and North Korean Defectors: A More Tragic Story than the Berlin Wall

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This is a perfect time to post about North Korean defectors; Search up "North Korean defectors" right now and you'll see why.

A four-kilometer wide border, that stretches from the West coast of the peninsula, to the East. This is the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), that existed in this world for about 70 years. Full of land mines and tens of thousands of soldiers placed at both sides, the DMZ is almost impossible to cross, unlike the Berlin Wall and the East-West separation wall, where thousands escaped every year, some digging the ground, some using a subway, and some using air balloons- which would've all been impossible in Korea. Why there is a border, is a simple question.

After the Second World War, the U.S., G.B.R., France, and the U.S.S.R., agreed to this thing, where the U.S. would control the South part (Below 38 degrees N), and the U.S.S.R. would control the North part (Above 38 degrees N) for three years, as they said that they would control Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as their former colonies for a few years, because they were "undeveloped", and "did not know how to manage a nation". So the Demilitarized Zone comes in and makes the border.

At the time, anyone could just pass over this border if they had an ID; similar to the Allies' occupation of Germany between 1945 and 1949. And many Koreans were frustrated about this.. in which most of them were South Koreans.

After listening to the Americans' propaganda, the people of the South wanted this 3-year Shintak Tongchi (Shintak Rule, 신탁통치) to be abolished. Listening to the Soviets' propaganda, many North Koreans wanted their nation under a Soviet development and a Communist state, with being under military occupation of the Soviets until 1948. Then you know the rest- the South and North civilians fought, they hated each other then, governments and nations were formed, one side electing Rhee Syngman, the other electing Kim Il Sung.

Then the war. After a few days, North Korea seized every Korean territory excluding Jeju Island and Busan. Then, South Korea seized every Korean territory except for a minimal amount bordering the People's Republic of China- If you saw the "People's" part, you know it's communist, and China, as well as the Soviets, invade, capturing Seoul again. Then the UN gets back Seoul, and from 1951 to 1953, the front line zigzags around. At 1953, a very unstable armistice is signed, and a straight Korean border is gone, however a wide "Demilitarized Zone" is made.

After the Korean War, this border is made. In Red is the military-only zone.
R. Tatiraju/ Wikipedia (CC)

To prevent population loss, North Korea made a huge fence around its border, with the heavy guard in the South, facing South Korea, the recently strong-growing guards (However there is barbed wire and fencing), and probably the same for Russia. Except that Russia and China's borders have some gates for the military and the high-class.

Many people still attempt to escape through the borders every day, and most of those people do not escape through the heavily-armed South Korean border, but rather the Chinese border. If a North Korean defector gets caught by Chinese police, they are sent back to North Korea, and many gets executed, tortured, or sent to labor camps, where, for three generations, the defectors' family must work without pay.

Those who do not get caught by Chinese police, especially women, gets caught by Chinese citizens involved in drug and sex trafficking, in which some pretend to be brokers who would say that they will send you to the South, then send you back to North Korea, or make you get involved in the human trafficking business.

Some people who are lucky in China goes straight to Mongolia, NOT by plane, as again, China sends every single North Korean defector "home". The poor North Koreans have to walk their way through the Gobi desert, until they reach Mongolia. Mongolia attempts to have good relations with both of the Koreas, however gives mercy to the defectors, with a pleasant meal and a plane ticket to South Korea.

And finally, some people amazingly travel by boat and attempt to land in South Korea. Some actually got to Japan, where some stayed and some people left for South Korea, and some people, before the 80's, were sent back to North Korea.

Only 23,000 people escaped from North Korea, compared to thousands escaping East Germany. 23,000 defectors in the past 60 years seems to be a little cruel. Let's all hope for the reunification of Korea, and some nationalism kick in.

By the way, did you know that 2 South Koreans left to North Korea? These 2 was a famous Korean movie director couple kidnapped by North Korean agents and had to make propaganda movies and copycats of "Godzilla", until they finally escaped during a Swiss film festival.

The DMZ is also the oldest untouched place in the world, making it sanctuary for endangered animals.

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Contact the Korean Story at: thekoreanstory@outlook.com

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Korean Last Names Explained

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Korean last names. The first thing that comes to your mind: Kim. This is no surprise, as 21.6% (in 2000), according to the Korean Census, had the last name Kim. However, this is because of many ancestries in the Kim last name. Let's look into that.

Blue: Kim    Green: Lee    Orange: Park    Red: Choi    Purple: Jung    White: Other
Korea Stats 2000/Wikipedia (CC)

Many surnames have many ancestries in them. Uncommon surnames usually have one ancestry, like mine, Moon, which is the 23rd most common last name in South Korea (with 0.8 percent!). Then, in one ancestry, it may be divided into groups, known as 파 (Pa). It is usually founded by a person who leaves the 본관 (Bongwan, the place where the ancestry was started).

The most populous family, the Kim family, has a bit of history connecting to Korea's neighbors.

Many people with the surname "Kim" came from the Southeast side of the peninsula. Many Kim ancestries there are interconnected to one huge Kim ancestry, that founded the Shilla Dynasty.

Since many Japanese are thought to be of Korean descent, as the latest Korean immigration to Japan being in the 1940's, some Japanese "received" the last name "Kim" from former dynasties of Korea. Some are just descendants of the Koreans who immigrated there. It's complicated; in the 5-6th century Southern Korean dynasties discovered the land of Japan, taught them some stuff, in which the Japanese modified them into their own version (such as Karate and Sushi). That's when Japanese people became more closer to the other East Asians and shared their culture.

If you look at the Northern tip of North Korea, where it was occupied by many Korean and Manchurian Dynasties, South Manchuria was finally occupied forever by Joeson Dynasty of Korea in the 1400's. The Manchurian people who lived there at the time were "culturally mixed" with the Koreans there and became part of their ethnic identities. Many people then were considered to become a barely-known level of society between slaves and commoners, in which most of them were butchers. Off topic again, anyways in the Korean History Recorders, with many books recorded by royal historians at the time, shows in the 1400's, King Sejong the Great (Who made the Korean Writing system), gave some South Manchurians the last name of Kim. That's why, near the borders of North Korea, the People's Republic of China has many citizens with the surname Kum/Gum. 

Onto the Lees. it's pronounced as "E" in South Korea, because of the new pronunciation rule in the 60's and 90's, while North Korea still uses "Rhee". Yang is Liang, et cetra et cetra.  And the rest is too complicated for me to say.

But I can tell you a bit about my last name, Moon. With about 300,000~400,000 people with the last name, its only ancestry, the Hampyung Moons, originated in Hampyung District, Naju City, in Jeonla Province, founded by Dasung Moon, who later became one of the highest officials in Baekjae Dynasty. I'm 48 generations apart from him. 

The story of the Moons goes on like this. When the mayor of Naju was "playing" in the creek, he heard a baby cry. Soon, he discovered a little boy with really, really white skin (no offense!), and decided to raise him. Since the little boy was so good at recognizing most objects, his last name became Moon, which comes from Moonhwa, made up of two words, "Culture Flower". So, Moon=culture? Anyways, the Moons are divided into 6 groups, in which two of them went to the Island Province that used to be part of Jeonla at the time: Jeju Island. One group, the Namjaegongs, made by the great-great grandson of Dasung Moon, settled in Daejung, the Southwest corner of the island. And the Choongjaegongs, descendants of Ikjum Moon, probably the most famous Moon in Korea because he let cotton seeds enter into Korea (which was considered illegal in at-the-time Chinese dynasties, because they said that they wanted to keep their awesome culture inside their lands), and later Japan, settled in another part of Jeju. I said "another part", because I belong in the Namjaegongs and barely know it, through my friend who went to school with me in that island. And my grandfather lives in Illgwa Village, Daejung, which has the highest percentage of the Namjaegongs, so no wonder I know that fact. 

And also, some ancestries are "descedant" ancestries of some East Chinese ones, but since East China doesn't have one language but a lot, who cares? There's a lot of Ancestry group educational centers and meetings, too.

Summary:

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Contact me at: thekoreanstory@outlook.com

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Powerful Koreans 1: Ban Ki-Moon

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© ITU/ M. Jacobson - Gonzalez
Wikipedia/ (CC)

There are some powerful Koreans out there, eh? I can't believe that South Korea is both the home country of the leader of the UN and the World Bank! Welcome to "The Korean Story" series: Powerful Koreans! We'll talk about a bunch of powerful and wealthy Koreans, including North Koreans.

Let's start with Ban Ki-moon (Ban is the last name, 반기문). Ban is the 8th and current Secretary-General of the United Nations. Born in Haengchi Village (행치마을) in Eumseung County (음성군), Choongchung Province (충청도), in June 13th, 1944. It was a Tuesday. Koreans made Haengchi Village a UN tourist site, so that's pretty sad. That's enough information about his birth.

Ban, in his childhood days, was considered as a "English Master" in his town. However, many times he wasn't recognized because of his half-moon looking mole on his face (I think it's the nose). However, his English teachers helped him fight over the discrimination, and he won a speech contest, in which led to him meeting Present John F. Kennedy (of the United States of Americano) in third grade. Yes, THIRD GRADE, during the Korean War. And saying that he was from a small village in Korea that barely anyone knows, that's amazing.

Well, after his visit with at-the-time member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ban decided to become a diplomat and studied hard enough to enter politics at the very young age of twenty-six in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Third Republic of Korea. (Look at the Korean dictators page for more details.) He then worked as the vice-consulate general in India, rather than the U.S., because Indian consulates did get more pay at the time? Anyways, dictators died, Ban rose through ranks (and became director of UN division, which let Korea, at the time a non-member state, get represented in the UN.), dictators escaped into Buddhist temples, Ban became Deputy Minister for International policy planning, then a Presidential political adviser, then Ambassador to Austria and Slovenia, yadi yadi yada.

In 2007, Ban got to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations (of Earth), and focused heavily on peace and supporting third world nations. No wonder he got elected for the second time in 2011. He also condemned the anti-refugee/migrant stuff going on in Hungary (please don't leave, Hungarian readers! If there's any...), and led peace talks with the "Democratic" People's Republic of Korea.

Since Ban's Secretary-Generalship will end in the last day of 2015, many Korean politicians are eager to use him as their political icon. Why? Let me tell you the reasons.

1: Ban is the most powerful Korean in the world and holds almost 100% popularity in South Korea.
2: Ban luckily didn't get hurt in any political fights, mainly because he worked overseas.
3: His hometown is in Choongchung Province, in which the government is constructing a new capital.

And the Korean politicians want to use him so badly....
Oh yeah! Ban was the Minister of Foreign Affairs before 2007. And Ban met Putin.

Ban and Putin. Kremlin.ru/Wikipedia (CC)

Thanks for reading this first article of "Powerful Koreans", the emergency blog-saving and less stressful program  a "The Korean Story" series!

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Chaebols, Explained

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If you finish reading this post, you would know why this took so much time. Also, I took Samsung as an example in this post.

Chaebols, whether is an international news or news in Korea, appear onto the news headlines these days. But before I can talk about all of this, what is a "Chaebol"?

You know how almost all large Korean companies are family companies? We call the families Chaebolga, (재벌가). The members of it are the chaebols. Why does Korea have so many family companies that are rich? Koreans have this "Family ideology", so it was like starting in the 1500's, one ancestry lived in a town and another prominent ancestry in another town. Some, or most Koreans love to keep their things in the family. And to avoid huge amount of taxes, many chaebols spread their wealth to their relatives, and give them high spots on their companies. Also, many wealthy people want to "keep the wealth among their families" and improve relations between chaebol families, so in order to do this, they usually have one chaebol son get married to another chaebol daughter from another company.

Wait, before you see the map below, the reason there is Samsung Electronics but also Samsung Cars is because of less tax payments, so many children to give the companies to and relatives splitting off to make another Chaebol family line. Samsung Group is a group of companies under the Lee family, but isn't really a company itself. And in Korea, the Chaebol family is usually in the Chair's family, not the CEO.

This contributes to why eleven Chaebol companies are all interconnected, based on Samsung's founder Lee Byung Chul;

Long story short Lee Byung Chul made sure that their children were married to children of other major companies and officials of governments. From this part the post is all about the family tree, so if you don't want to read it, you can close the window.

AND SERIOUSLY, DON'T COPY THIS STUFF ONTO YOUR OWN BLOG. Except for expeddi, where I got the family tree photo from.

 Lee Byung Chul had two half-Japanese children we don't care about, and 8 children that became really wealthy people. The eight children are: Male: Gunhee, Changhee, Manghee. Female: Myunghee, Dukhee, Soonie, Sookhee, and Inhee. Notice how all these people's names end with "hee": most Korean siblings have at least one letter (English equivalent are syllables) in their name that their brothers and sisters have.

Son Gunhee:

Relations with Joongang Newspaper Group: Lee's son Lee Gunhee, who got to be the Chair of Samsung Group, was married to the daughter of Joongang Newspaper Group founder, in which one of his three sons became the chair of Joongang News and the other two sons were jealous (or given from his father) and founded Bogwang Group, another Chaebol group.
Relations with Daesang Group: Gunhee's son Jaeyong, who's going to take over Samsung Group when he dies, marries the daughter of the Chair of Daesang Group. Jaeyong's wife and her sister are the largest stock holders of the largest group in Dae
Relations with Donga News Group: Gunhee's daughter marries brother of Donga Chair.

Son Manghee: Received CJ Group from Father

Son Changhee: Received Saehan Group from father

Relations with Dongbang Group:  Changhee's son Jaegwan gets married the daughter of Dongbang Group's Chair. 

Relations with Life Group (Bankrupt in 1990's): Changhee's daughter Hyejin marries the son of former Life Group Chair

Daughter Myunghee: Received Shinsaegae Group (Which made the largest department store in the World) from her father

Daughter Sukhee:

Relations with LG Group: Sukhee was married to the brother of the Chair of LG

Daughter Inhee: Received Hansol Group/ Seperated from Samsung, and had 5 children and 12 grandchildren.

Phew. This took a long time because I was really tired last night and I wrote like once sentence an hour. Sorry!

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Dictators of South Korea

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Dictators. I thought they were only existent in the evil, communist North! No, just like North Korea, South Korea had 3 dictators, in which 2 of them I've already mentioned in previous posts. But here are the names:

Syungman Rhee (이승만): 1st, 2nd, and 3rd President (1948-1960)
Chunghee Park (박정희): 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th "President" (1961-1979)
Doohwan Cheon (전두환): 11th, 12th "President" (1980-1988)

Rhee.    Wikipedia/ (CC)

Let's go with the first dude on the list. Rhee Syungman was the first president of the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea). He was the dude who shouted out for "At least there should be democracy somewhere, let's put it on the south part of Korea!". As he got elected the first president of Korea, the former leader of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea said in his election speech that he will lead the country with the words of the peoples. Yeah, and look how that turned out. He had two 6-year terms as being a really bad president, people called him a dictator, because he acted like one; he arrested all the senators that were against him in Busan, during the Korean War.  And at the 3rd presidential election in South Korea, he made a bunch of systems where some gangs threatened many to vote for Rhee, and somehow made the election system into a useless state, making sure that Rhee got EVERYONE's votes. And that's when the middle and high school students of Masan city rose up and protested. Yes, I did say MIDDLE school students. Other citizens joined as they saw their children protesting.
And sadly, the police, who were supposed to protect the people, killed many of their citizens. Many people even went missing, and their location in unknown even today.Then like a month later, the 11th day of April 1960, people found a body of a high school student who was killed by police then thrown into the ocean in order to hide it from media. The news spread and spread and people got mad and protested in the streets of Seoul. 100 citizens died that day, and more did in the coming days, however the protesters increased. In the 25th, 100,000 people came out to the streets, including professors, and that meant 1 in 250 people in the nation participated. The next day, Rhee resigned and got exiled to Hawaii, in which he lived there with his Austrian wife until he died 5 years later.

Park     Wikipedia/ (CC)

Onto the next dictator. When the Second Republic of Korea was established (but considered to be representing the past republic), with almost all powers going to the Prime Minister Chang Myun, and the new president Yoon Bosun was just a headless figure. Meaning= Yoon was the head of State and Chang was the head of Government. And they were full of pro-Japanese people that angered all the citizens. And soon there was a coup, as in May 16th, 1961, the military, led by Chunghee Park, took over all government buildings and arrested Chang Myun. 2 years later, this dude narrowly won presidency. His goal was to have low labor costs and... just go to the post about the "Miracle of the Han River", okay? Anyways, his two four-year terms ended, and right before the 7th presidential election in 1971, Park changed the constitution and let presidents have a 3-term presidency. Oh yes, the people were mad, as only the government was getting rich and many people were kept poor (Just like in some parts of the People's           Republic of China these days). Of course, he was reelected. A year later, Park added the Yusin Constitution, making him eternal leader of Korea (And the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th President) .Then to make sure he stayed in power, Park reelected himself again in 1978. He was assasinated a year later by Jaegyu Kim, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (Currently the NIS, National Intelligence Service). Then finally, the fourth Republic came in and elected Choi Gyu Hwa in the 10th presidential election, who was the Prime Minister at the time and also the acting president. People were so happy that they threw away the picture of Park in the police stations.

Cheon, when he was a young person in his 50s (CC)

However, the Fourth Republic lasted shorter than the Second Republic. Only eight months later, Chun doohwan, who was an army general under Park's rule, lead another coup. And people got very, very mad. But from stop making students organize protests, he arrested many of them and closed the gates of all universities in Korea. That didn't stop the protests, though. The people of Gwangju got  into taxis, buses, or walked to the South Jeonla Province provincial building, and ran to the military. The military killed hundreds of people that day, however the citizens finally got control of the provincial buildings in the 21st of May. However, Cheon blocked all the media and even destroyed some companies, then went onto the 11th presidential election where he got all of the votes. He did the same thing in 1984 when he got 90% of the votes of the 12th presidential election. People still protested every day, only to get hit by bombs thrown by police. However, after the death of two students, people held up signs like, "Do not kill my child twice!" And thousands marched up and down the streets every day. Then Cheon began to worry that he might get assasinated, too, and gave his power to Roh Taewoo, who eventually betrayed him and brought democracy to the nation.

This post was a bit late; sorry!

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The Korean Empire

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What? Korea was an empire? Never heard of it.



Emperor Gojong.

As the Qing Dynasty/Empire of China was an Empire, it meant that some nations around them paid tributes and they kept expanding land. But as the Qing Dynasty weakened, the Joeson Dynasty said that it was time to stop paying the tributes. So in October 20th, 1897, the Joeson Dynasty became the Daehan Empire (Korean Empire), and Gojong the Great (Look on the Korean Kings' names section) became Gojong Hwangjae (Emperor Gojong).

The Korean Empire is mistakenly thought for being just a name-changed horrifying nation, but really, it's not. It is the symbol of Korean urbanization, in which we decided to let in a bunch of foreign stuff into our nation. We developed modern weopons and modern buildings. Many of us CUT our hair, which was a sacred thing back then. Emperor Gojong's hair was forcefully cut by the Japanese, however, who ruled the peninsula after him. Gojong was also sad when the Japanese killed his wife, the Emperess Min of Korea. This angered many Koreans, but angered them even more when in August 29th, four random people who wanted money and power signed a contract with Japan claiming that the Korean Empire was to be "unified" with the Japanese Empire. Many Korean royals had to marry Japanese royals and as the Korean royals died out, Japan was taking over Korea.

By the way, did you know that the Korean Empire even had a national anthem? I listened to it on Youtube, and it has all the old grammars that disappeared in South Korea (but didn't disappear in the North).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBvh95hpJtA

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Religion in Korea

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Religion. In Asia, there's radical Islam in the West, and sometimes radical Buddhism in the South East. Christianity is very unknown in China, however the religion is very different in the Korean Peninsula. Let us look into Korea's religion.

In North Korea before 1948, the place had freedom of religion. But now, there is barely freedom of religion, except for one, where North Koreans believe Kim Jung Un and his daddy and granddaddy does not poop and is a god.

Shining Kim Il Sung- NamuWiki/ (CC) 

Religion in South Korea is, well, has more things to explain.

First of all, Korean Protestants and I think Muslims do not participate in traditional Korean events, like remembering someone who died on his/her death day, et cetra. Catholics and Buddhists participate, though. Traditional beliefs tied with Confucianism and all sorts are not considered religions.

South Korea, according to a 2005 census, is 46.5% No religion, 22.8% Korean Buddhism, 29.2% Christianity (18.3% Protestant, 10.9% Catholic), and the leftover 1.7% are diverse minority religions such as Islam and Hindu.

Buddhism came into the Korean Peninsula in the 6th century and became the national religion of many dynasties until 1392, when the Korean Confucian-believers founded the Joeson dynasty. Buddhism was kind of modified into a type of Buddhism called "Korean Buddhism". It spread around the world, and there are less than 10 Korean Buddhist temples in the Czech Republic. (Simply saying this because I had to study about the Czech Republic in a school project years and years ago.)

Catholicism, just like in other nations, is directly connected to the Vatican City. However, Protestant Christianity is way more complicated, as you can basically make your own Protestant religion in one second. Also, there are hundreds of scam Protestant Christian religions in Korea, and they belong in a group called "사이비 종교" (Psyee-bee Jonggyo). If you heard of the Sewol Ferry disaster that happened in Korea a year ago, the former C.E.O. of the company was a leader of one of these strange religions- 구원파 (Guwon-pa, Miracle Group), in which they claim that they know when they were "saved by god" by the day, hour and minute. However, not all protestant groups are like this. Some protestants didn't participate to behead statues of Buddha in the 80's and 90's. The people who did those things were radical protestants.

For protestant groups that exist in America in Europe, the major three groups are Presbyterianism Church (장로교회), Methodism (감리교회), and the Baptists (침례교회). 

There are 40,000 Korean nationals who are Muslims, and there is a larger population for foreign Muslim labor workers. Same as Hindu. 

As of overseas Koreans, Korean Buddhist temples were built (There's actually one in Metro Vancouver), and quite a lot of Catholic and Protestant churches that usually has like 1 English mass and the rest is just in Korean. 

St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church, Metro Vancouver

And that's it for Korea's religion.

Contact me at: thekoreanstory.outlook.com

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Where the Name "Korea" comes from

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Ever wondered where Korea got its name? Wonder why.

"Korea" is from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). In the 12th Century, merchants from Arabia and India "discovered" Korea when passing at the time the Chinese/Mongolian Won Dynasty (The Mongol Empire). And they pronounced "Goryeo" into something similar to "Corea". Then the Frenchies (or French Fries) came by and named us Corée. Then the English Muffins who shared a lot of cultural ties with France, named it Corea. I love giving countries nicknames.

Then the Goryeo Dynasty got wiped off the map and the Joeson Dynasty came in, however the Europeans did not change what they called the Korean Peninsula. Then the Japanese rule came in 1910, and apparently they wanted "J" (of Japan) to be in front of "C" (Of Corea) so they changed Corea into Korea. the English language called it Korea from then. The Romance Languages (Languages spoken in Italy, France, and the Iberian Peninsula) still let Korea start with a C. 

Some Korean activists want nationalism to kick in and rename the Republic of Korea into the Republic of Corea, but that's just millions of dollars wasted, and when the activists told the world that this is about nationalism, I don't get why Arabians and French people trying to write and pronounce the word "고려" (Goryeo) is a nationalistic thing, unless they're saying that we share the same heritage and ancestry (Well, we all share the same ancestry since we all have 1 or 2 common ancestors from the start of humanity, but I'm not talking that far.) This is a nice short post for the night. (Or midnight)

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Dialects/Regions of Korea Explained

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Dialects of Korea. Like the U.S. or the U.K., it is the same language however sounds different in many of their areas. However, to South Korea, one of the most homogeneous nations of the world with 95% being ethnically Korean, it may be different.

From the South:
Jeju (제주) Culture: Gray, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
Jeonla (전라) Culture: Gold, South and North Jeonla Province, Gwangju City
Gyungsang (경상) Culture: Red, South and North Gyungsang Prov, Busan, Ulsan, and Daegu Cities
Choongchung (충청) Culture: Blue, South and North Choongchung Prov, Daejeon City, Sejong Special City
Gyungi (경기) Culture: Dark Green, Gyungi Province, Seoul Special City, Incheon
Gangwon (강원) Culture: Purple, South Korean and North Korean Gangwon Proivnces, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Region
Hwanghae (황해) Culture: Orange, South and North Hwanghae Provinces
Pyungan (평안) Culture: Lime Green, South and North Pyungan Provinces, Pyungyang, New Yiju Free Trade City, and Jagang Province
Hamgyung (함경) Culture: North and South Hamgyung Provinces, Nasun Special City

Korea has 9 different dialects with its own regional culture, dialect, and stereotypes. The languages, no matter how strange one person from Jeonla can speak, I bet that a person from Hamgyung province could understand it. In fact, Jeju is the most culturally different province from the rest of Korea. That's why there was a secession movement in the 50's. (But seriously, they can understand Korean fine, and I'm a Jeju person myself, so...) The provincial borders are very clear; the Jeonla dialect exists in the Jeonla Provinces, Gyungsang dialect in the Gyungsang Provinces, and so on. In fact, the reason there are the "North and South provinces" in South Korea, is because one nation is hard to govern with only 5 provinces (At the time Jeju was part of Jeonla.), and they thought the reasonable number would be around 10.

Some regional stereotypes I know of is putting dangke (당께) on every end of a sentence said by a Choongchung person, a dialect sounding similar to South Japanese (but many of their ancestors came from Korea) in Gyungsang, and a bunch of unknown words used by Jeju commoners.
There is also a regional variety in Kimchi, Korea's national food, which makes a great side dish, Very strange, but if you compare it to comparing German beer to Czech beer or a bunch of types of German beer INSIDE Germany, that's probably not an uncommon thing to see in the world.

Nowadays, the Gyungi cultural popularity is growing in South Korea, and the Pyungan cultural popularity is like 100% in North Korea.

In the old days where Korean dynasties used to control a huge chunk of Manchuria, (Northeast China), some North Korean cultures were there, too. Now, the place is just full of Han Chinese, Manchurians, and a Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Mao Zedong loved Koreans, too.

Also saying, the Hamgyung Culture actually is a mix of Korean and Manchurian ethnicity. The Southern half of Manchurian ethnicity is known to be "sucked in" by Korea.
Good night.

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Major South Korean Cities Explained

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Major Korean city Geography is nothing like normal Canadian or American Geography. You'll see soon. See, some major Korean cities have a huge population/too large enough to be governed by a provincial government. So they are made, excluding Seoul and Sejong, "광역시", or Gwangyuk-Sis (Si=City). It used to be called 직할시 (Jikhal-Si). There are 6 in total, and are indeed provincial-level. Those 6 cities are:

Gwangju Gwankyuk-Si (Not to be confused with Gwangju in Gyungi Province) Busan, Ulsan, Daegu, Daejeon, and Incheon. 

Gwangju: 1. Busan: 2. Ulsan: 3. Daegu: 4. Daejeon: 5. Incheon: 6.

Dialect Map of South Korea, one of the most homogeneous nations of the world. (Hint about another post!)

Usually, these major cities are first considered to be a "광역시" when its population goes over a million. Some people thought of unifying cities together in the most populous province of Gyungi (In which surrounds Seoul), as there are a lot of small cities in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. The idea, however, was turned away by many people, as unifying those small cities would take away huge parts of the Seoul Metropolitan Area and creating another, which would not solve the terrible overpopulation in the area.

Korean politicians usually consider making some cities into these provincial-level cities when they surpass the population of 1 million.

When cities are made into these "광역시"s, they usually take a nearby county with them. Now let's see what the major cities are made out of.

Busan: Busan City+ Gijang County
Ulsan: Ulsan City + Ulju County
Gwangju: Gwangju City + Songjong City + Gwangsan County
Daejeon: Daejeon City + Daeduk County
Incheon: Incheon City + Ganghwa County + Ongjin County + Gumdan District, Gimpo City (At the time Gimpo County)
Daegu: Daegu City + Dalsung County

The 6 Major cities together make up a quarter of Korea's population of 50.22 million in 2013.

One thing people might be curious about, is that if, IF South Korea's population reached 81 million (1 million for every municipality), is every single city going to be a provincial-level city? Or will the provincial-level city law be banished and they become provinces? We would never know today, but maybe in the future, we will.

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A Second Capital in South Korea?

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Seoul was the third largest city in Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), the capital of Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910), Japanese Korea (1910-1945), and is the capital of the Republic of Korea, with many historical monuments in and around it. However, many presidents (and dictators) considered moving the capital of Korea. Why were they? And why is Korea's newest city, Sejong Special Self-Governing City, (Named after the famous King Sejong), the first of its kind, the new parliamentary capital of Korea?

Map of Sejong.  TKostolany-Wikipedia/ (CC) 

First off, a little background information about Sejong City. Founded in July 1st, 2012, Sejong is made out of most of its former municipality, Yeongi Gun (Pronounced Goon, meaning county; not urban-centered), and took away Jang-gi District and a part of Lee-dang district (To make Janggun district) and a part of Banpo District (Not to be confused with the one in Korea) to add to Gum-nam District. And most of Buyong District of Cheongwon County (Now part of Chung-ju City, capital of North Choongchung Province) was added, too.

The two-capital thing is actually a part of a movement to move South Korea's capital southward, due to North Korean threats. In fact, it started in 1977, where the government of "President" Park Chung-hee did some research about Choongchung province and then decided that Jang-gi District of  Gongju would make a perfect capital. (Remember, Jang-gi is now part of Janggun District, in SEJONG!). But no progress was made since then, and finally it reappeared to the world when in the 2002 presidential election, former president Roh Mu-hyun talked about a new capital somewhere in Choongchung, from making it to the parliamentary capital and then moving other government bodies such as the Blue Roof House (Presidential home of Korea). And then through a 2006 poll/referendum, the name Sejong was decided.

The new capital movement was temporarily stopped by the Lee Myungbak government from 2007 to 2012, whom opposed the idea. Lee Wangoo, a key player in Korean politics right now, and was the governor for South Choongchung province at the time was mad about the idea, however had to resign his spot due to controversy. The new capital movement resumed after 2012, and now it is the parliamentary capital of Korea, solving Seoul's overpopulation problems.

Anyways, since Sejong is a de facto capital, it might be considered that South Korea has one capital. But since they moved the parliament to Sejong, so we'll count it as two.

Phew.
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Help!

Hey guys, Andy here.

As you know, "The Korean Story" makes content about Korea. For instance, South Korea's economic revolution, or how awesome Gimbop is.

To the readers who read my post minutes after I publish it, I thank you all, and remind you that this is also your blog. If you want me to post every post on a certain time, I will think about it and maybe use that idea. If you want me to post 2 posts a day on weekends, I will try my best. If you want more awesome posts about awesome... food, I will post about awesome food.

Korea is a thriving nation with a rich history and people (well, some of them at least), and to cover this approximately 210 thousand square kilometers of awesomeness I need your help. I can also accept information with accurate sources.

Thank you for reading this post till this far, and you can suggest me stuff through comments or sending an email to:

thekoreanstory@outlook.com

Thanks again!

Cause(s) of the Korean War

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The Korean War. Almost became the Third World War, and many Koreans didn't like it. Now, what had caused this war, a bloody war that killed, wounded, or misplaced around 4 million people?

After the Second World War ended and the Empire of Japan gave up most of its colonies, including the Korean Peninsula, many Koreans were happy that they could now govern themselves. The temporary Korean government organized in Shanghai finally came back to Korea and made the 조선건국준비위원회, or the Joeson (Korea) Foundation Preparing Council. two-thirds of the people there were communists, but that's not important. The important fact, is that Koreans were angered when they heard that the USSR, USA, GBR, and France had a secret meeting in Moscow about the future of Korea, and that the U.S. would control Korea below 48-degrees latitude for three years, while the Soviets, in which at the time temporarily controlled Manchuria (a former Japanese colony/puppet state right above Korea), occupied the North side of the 48-degrees latitude for three years. Many of those in the South rebelled against in what many Koreans know as "신탁 통치" (Shintack Tongchi,). The North didn't agree. Then a political leader, Kim Gu, who was a key in Korean independence, held a "Protest against Shintack Tongchi". And both sides agreeing and being against it showed up. And there was a bloody fight.

Syngman Lee. Flickr/(CC)

Eventually, 1948 showed up and the three-year period ended, whether Koreans hated or not. During the three-year period, many in the North started believing in Communism, and the South was the exact opposite. And someone in the crowd shouted,

"Let's just make a government in the South first! A capitalistic, democratic government!"

The name of the shouter was Syngman Lee, who was a fighter for Korean independence, relied on the U.S., and the first, second and third president of South Korea. (And he also tried to become dictator but eventually got executed to Hawaii) Eventually, the constitution was made in July 17th 1948, and the Republic of Korea was born exactly three years after Korean independence/End of WWII.

Kim Il Sung right after the Korean War started

Now the South Korean government was made, many North Koreans did not like that. and in less than four months, Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

And then you know the rest of the story- the communists wanted all of the Korean Peninsula to be like them so they invaded the South in a quite Sunday dawn, the dawn of June 25th, 1950.

So what caused the Korean War?
The correct answer is: the Americans and the Soviets.
Too bad South Koreans are TOO much trying to copy looking and living like Americans. And we will remember that the form of government isn't important at all; the only important thing is the happiness of the peoples.



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Miracle of the Han River

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"South Korea's GDP (PPP) growth from 1911 to 2008" by Cantus - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - 

Now, remember that other post with Dictat- I mean former President Park and the population of Seoul? Anyways, as I said, under his rule, there was a miracle in the Korean economy. I'm not exaggerating here- but it had the fastest record of economic growth for decades! From 30 billion to more than a trillion in THIRTY YEARS- It's GDP (Gross Domestic Product, how much a country earns in a period) increased like 333 times in that 3 decades; that's way less than what General MacArthur (who commanded the Korean War and disobeyed former U.S. president Truman) said:
"It will take them (Korea) 100 years to recover from the devastation."

Anyways, why is my post called "The Miracle of the Han River?" Because that's what usually people call South Korea's huge economic growth in the late 20th Century. It was inspired by the "Miracle of the Rhine River", in which West Germany, after the Second World War, became Europe's largest economy after they experienced pain from the... you know what it is.

The Miracle of the Han River started in 1961, where Chung-hee Park was kind of like (in the 1961 election), "With cheap labor costs and sending the Koreans abroad, we will experience stress little now and have great wealth soon!" That statement came to life. Korean medics went everywhere, as well as one tragic event: sending Koreans the West German Rhine coal mine regions, where many had died. (Yes, the coal mines are dangerous.)

Within South Korea, young girls work in crowded factories and made clothes for 14-16 hours and only got 50 won a day; that was like buying a small cup of machine coffee! Many laborers crowded into Seoul and built buildings and factories, destroyed all the forests of Gangnam district of Seoul, which was all just huts and farmland at the time (And now the most economically thriving region of the nation, in fact this is where "Gangnam Style" by PSY is based on!).

What was the result of all of this? Yes, the high class getting rich and the lower class staying where they are. Even if the Korean economy was growing like wildfire.

But in the late 60's and 70's, something happened. A Korean laborer named Tae-il Jeon, who worked in the Seoul Peace Street Market, who used his bus fees from the day to get home to feed the young kids working with him, made the "Babo Group" in 1968, (바보회) or "The Stupid Group". He told the people with him, that they were "stupid" enough to not protest about the current situations of the laborers. Jeon then studied the laws of labor and went from government office to government office, complaining that the government is treating laborers like machines.

Tae-il Jeon got fired, then. Later, when he barely got rehired, he went on to complain to the media. And finally, on October 7th, 1970, the news about the laborers was finally written about. Everyone thought that things were going to change now, and the government said that they will keep on eye on the market owners, however did nothing at all. Finally, Jeon got mad, and protested a month later by burning himself in the middle of a crowded street, shouting,

"Obey the labor laws, stop treating us like machines, and do not make my death in vain!"

And that's when the huge protests began. The boycotts of the laborers affected the large companies, and in 1988, the Korean government finally made a minimum wage of 470 won. That is approximately 45 US CENTS, however was 30% of an average laborer's salary. These things are now rare in South Korea, as the minimum wage is going to be 6030 won in 2016, and is growing about 30-50 U.S. cents per year.The laborers' minimum wage is higher.

Back to the Korean economic growth story. In 1997, there was this thing called the Asian Crisis, better known in Korea as the IMF jeopardy (Or some across the globe call it the Korean IMF Crisis, just like Greece is in now.). Korea's GNI suddenly dropped below $10,000. Many became unemployed, This was all due to the past 2 decades, where Korea built factories, lent more money, and built more factories.. which turned out to be a dumb idea. If you're wondering why I'm not posting any photos right now, just go to this website 'cause I know all of those three Korean crisis..es?. : http://www.inthekimchijar.com/687

Anyways, that gave me an idea about future posts: Tragic events in Korea and why they happen.

Wait, this is not the end of the story! I forgot to say that Korea finally paid back all their debts in they year 2000 and now they have the 11th largest economy. Yay.

Sorry, I got off-topic.

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Kimbop (김밥), Symbolism of Korean Food

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BEHOLD THE GIMBOP! (Or kimbop.)

Kimbop. Literal translation: Seaweed Rice, or seaweed meal. Many people think seaweed is just some kind of green stuff in the ocean, but if you cook it twice, and brush some sesame oil and salt onto the seaweed: It's fabulous. Now with that, Koreans made the delicious food favored in picnics. (Cause it's not really like a full meal.)
The main ingredients can differ; of course, you need to have cooked seaweed and rice (COOKED, of course!) Then you can add ingredients like cheese, kimchi, tuna, ham, and cooked eggs.

The ingredients and the wooden mat.

How to make your gimbop:

1. Cut all the ingredients (excluding seaweed and rice) into a long rectangular shape. save the other pieces for more gimbop ingredients.
2. Place the ingredients on the rice, which will be spread around a huge piece of seaweed, which shall be on a wooden mat.
3. Roll the wooden mat for a few minutes.
4. Then cut that roll you have in front of you (10 would be fine.)

And there you have your gimbop!

Since you can choose your ingredients, gimbop has been always popular, fun to make, and diverse. In fact, Korea gave this idea to Japan about 1500 years ago, and that's how Sushi came out to the world!
In the late 20th century, sausage was an interesting and popular ingredient in gimbop; in modern days, there are a lot of kinds of gimbops, such as triangle gimbop (sold a lot in places in 7/11 and other chain corner stores like that.)

Also, there are things called "Gimbop Chains" which is kinda like a fast food restaurant, but the speed is between a normal restaurant and a fast food chain, and it isn't fast food. There are 45,400 of these in Korea, mostly near schools where students can go eat stuff after school.

Have fun making Kimbop!

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Why is Seoul's Metropolitan Area so Populated?

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Hello Internet,

Buildings with N Tower in North Seoul right behind them 

If you look at a list of the most populous metropolitan areas of the world, Seoul was 4th last year (2014) and now, they passed Delhi and became the third most populous metropolitan area of the world, at around 26.1 million! And that's MORE than half of South Korea's population of 51.4 million in August 2015. So why is Seoul's metropolitan area so populated?

Photo of Park in 1963

It all has to do with Korean urbanization since 1961, to be exact. See, there was a coup in 1961 led by Chung-hee Park, who later retired from the army and became "president" (He was a dictator for 18 years; being the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, AND 9th president!). Park, who was the father of current president (and the first to be a female), Geun-hye Park, was known for his huge violence and the killings of tens of thousands of Koreans, as well as aggressive anti-communist policies that still effects many Koreans today. However, without his really bad labor policies and the suffering of many laborers including young girls, South Korea couldn't have become the economic giant it is now today. Oops, off topic. (I'll explain this in another post.)

Anyways, former "president" Park made the Korean agriculture market smaller and made many farmers lose jobs and come up to Seoul, where there were plenty of minor jobs you barely could live with.

South Korea was (and is) a VERY capital-based nation; Seoul is the largest, most wealthiest, the most economically developed... almost anything you can say about. In fact, that might "go around in circles" and the "most developed" part might be the reason why more and more people are coming to live in Seoul. And as the young children in the start of the Republic of Korea (I meant the late 1940's) were getting older and older, they began to quit their city jobs and go back to their hometown for farming. And now, that's what almost everyone's doing: coming up to Seoul following their parents or when they go to college, living there until you're old enough to quit your job, and go back to the place you lived when you were young. No wonder Korean stereotypes show only old people in farming towns. However, things might change; a lot of parents in Seoul are starting to send their children to farming towns to study. Who knows what's going to happen next? You decide. In the future, that will be just another topic for me to write about.

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The Names of Kings

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Hello Internet,

Today I will tell you guys something about the dynasties of Korea; Kings.
In Korea, we do not learn about the actual names of Kings, we instead use it off of names given to them after their death.

See, if you know that the Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) Kings' last names are Lee and the Kings of the Dynasty right before that (Goryeo Dynasty) have the last name Wang, you might wonder why names of kings like Sejong or Jungjo do not contain last names. Same to history of older kings, and it's complicated.

See, the we don't learn the kings' names by their real name. I mean, many people do not know that Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain and the Commonwealth's last name was Windsor. However, the Goryeo Dynasty (Where the name "Korea" was derived from) and Joeson Dynasty's names are way more complicated.

Before all of that, Just saying I'm not covering the Gojoeson Dynasty, the first dynasty of Korea, because most of its history is half-mythical and half-true. Tell you guys about that in another post. Not counting Gaya or Tamla Kingdom because those two were just minor kingdoms in South Korea and many people seem to ignore them in history, even in the old days.
Also, 70% of Korean words have a Chinese word, and all Korean kings' names can be translated into Chinese.

Let's start with Goguryeo (B.C.E. 37-C.E. 688). The kings of this dynasty was named 3-5 letters. Since Koreans and Chinese have some "Backwards" things (Like in our home addresses, the Western world count their street number first and in Korea, we count "The Republic of Korea" first), the"Wang" at the end of everything, means "king". Wait, I think I have to teach you guys the "levels" of kings. Shoot.

Maripgan (마립간): Lower level kings in which I'm not even sure if they're Sino-Korean, a term used for kings in Shilla Dynasty in their early days
Wang (왕): King
Daewang (대왕): the Great (Lit. Translation: Large King)
Taewang (태왕): the Greater (Lit. Translation: Larger King)
Hwangjae (황제): Emperor. Used in China. And later Korea.
REMINDER: These are put at the BACK of the name of every dead king. When they were alive, people just called the kings "Your highness" or something.

Now we can go. Goguryeo used sometimes King, Large King, and sometimes large(r) king for really awesome people. Also, their real name was different from their names used in history classes, however was just like any other name. Random. Same to Shilla Dynasty (B.C.E. 57- C.E. 935).

Now for Baekjae Dynasty (B.C.E. 18- C.E. 663). They just put their real first name and "Wang" on the back.

Phew. 2 Dynasties more to go- yet the one with the most recorded and accurate history!

Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) has a bunch of things you should remember about. For example, the after-death name at the time people given were very long in their early days, for example Jidukjanggyungjungsukyungingyungganjangwonmoonmyung Taewang (지덕장경정숙영인경간장원문명대왕). They were renamed into something called "Myoho" (묘호).
A myoho is an afterdeath name that has one random name at the front and a Jo or Jong at the back. If you are the first king of a dynasty, your myoho is always "Taejo" (태조). What is the difference between "Jo" and "Jong?" Well, if you are a king and you get a "Jo", you probably founded the country you are king of, or did something huge (Like a revolution or a massacre). If you get a "Jong", your father was once a king of your nation and/or you did something that helped your citizens a lot. (For example, King Sejong made the Korean writing system.)  

In nations surrounding China, you were not to use the myoho system; only Chinese Emperors were able to. However, Goryeo Dynasty however, were allowed to use this. Then the Mongolians came. Oh, what a great time THAT was. The Mongolians banned the myoho system from Goryeo and they gave the kings their after death names/what they were called. That happened for 9 kings, until there was a revolution in both China, Korea, and Japan and everything was plain new. 

In Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) and the Korean Empire (1897-1910), the myoho system was used, except for two kings, Yeonsan-gun and Gwanghae-gun. Gun (pronounced Goon), in which Yeonsan-gun overspent, and was a mad person (but he was once awesome), and Gwanghae-gun, whom I do respect but somehow got to be a gun. Gun, by the way, is a term for princes. Actually, Taegun (Large Prince?) is the correct one. But the reason why they remained like that is because they were evil and made the citizens and the economy mad. 

And now, in the Republic of Korea, we just call presidents president. Phew. This was one boring post. Maybe I should post fun posts from now.

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The Great Wall of Korea(s)?

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Heard of the Great Wall of China (만리장성, 萬里長城),  where Chinese dynasties from, from the Han in B.C.E. 233 (Or the Jin in B.C.E. 770-443, the historians argue about this), where it stretches thousands of kilometers from East to Central China? Well, how about the Great Wall of Korea?

To fully understand the Great Wall of Korea(s), you must understand the Great Wall of China.
The Chinese Great Wall was made in order to stop tribes of the North (such as Mongolians and the Manchurian peoples) from invading China. The literal Chinese translated name for the Great Wall of China is the 10,000-li long castle. Li (or ri) is a form of Ancient East Asian measurement where 1 li roughly equals to 0.4 km. And since, in one point of history, the Great Wall of China was 4000 km long, so the name is quite reasonable.

Red: The Goguryeo Great Wall
Blue: The Goryeo Great Wall

Now, onto the Great Wall of Korea (천리장성, 千里長城). The first "Great Wall of Korea" I will talk about is the one built during the Goguryeo Dynasty (Red line on the map), a dynasty that lasted about 700 years. This Great Wall's literal translated name is the 1000-li long castle.  However, the Goguryeo Great Wall wasn't 400 km long; it was 700 km long! The reason they named it the 1000-li castle was just because they thought "it was so long it stretched over 400 km", but stretched even more. In conclusion: they barely estimated the distance. The Goguryeo Great Wall was built from the year 631 to 647 after the Goguryeo Dynasty and the Chinese Tang Dynasty's relations worsened. And yes, the Goguryeo Dynasty controlled VAST areas beyond the borders of current North Korea, controlling both the place where Confucius the Chinese philosopher was born and the current major Russian city of Vladivostok. That's why they could even build their Great Wall and why the People's Republic of China now operates the place.

The Second Great Wall of Korea's literal translation did almost exactly fit its description; it was about 400 km long. This Great Wall, built in the early days of Goryeo Dynasty (Called themselves the descendants of Goguryeo), is inside the borders of North Korea, and was the border of Goryeo Dynasty and a bunch of other Chinese Dynasties (and later the Mongolian Empire).

All the Korean Great Walls fit a similar purpose with the Chinese Great Wall; to protect themselves from the enemies of the North. If Korea never was divided or they still had territory up to the red line of the map, the Korean Great Walls would be better known today. However, with the Old Great Wall being in China (which has a longer Great Wall) and the New Great Wall being in the mysterious nation called the "Democratic" People's Republic of Korea, it is very unknown to many around the globe.

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What is Korea?

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Hello Internet,

If anyone asks you "Where/What is Korea?" or "Do you know what Korea is?", please stop them and tell them to read this post.

This is my first post, and since it's a first post about, well, something, I will attempt to describe Korea in a simple way (since I can't keep things simple.)

Well, if you don't know what Korea is, you can say it is 2 countries in East Asia, or a strip of land usually called the Korean peninsula with an area of 220,847 square kilometers and 75.12 million people (In 2013) living within it.

First, I'll show you where Korea is located.

I'm sad to say that I have to describe it by saying that it's close to other nations, as some of you guys don't know where Korea is, but know where Japan or China is.

"Sea of Japan Map en" by Sea of Japan Map.png: Chris 73derivative work: Phoenix7777 (talk) - This file was derived from: Sea of Japan Map.png:. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_of_Japan_Map_en.png#/media/File:Sea_of_Japan_Map_en.png

The Sea of Japan is actually the "East Sea", as in the East of Korea. Many people and groups, such as NASA, mistake it for the Sea of Japan, the name Japan gave for the East Sea. This is probably due to the "Unification" of Japan and Korea, where for 35 years, Japan colonized the Korean peninsula under their rule. (The Korean peninsula is South and North Korea.)

If you look at the map, (and you don't know a lot about the "conflict" going at that place), there are two nations with borders under the name "North Korea" and "South Korea". Why is this? 

Simply put, it is kind of a result of the Cold War, where in the start the U.S. attempted to make Korea into a democratic, capitalist nation (and have good relations with the U.S. and bad ones with the USSR), and the largest country from 1923 to 1991, the Soviets themselves tried to make Korea into a communist nation siding with them and getting filled with all sorts of propaganda about the "fat" Americans. This whole conflict eventually started the Korean War (1950-1953), which almost became the Third World War, however luckily was stopped by the Americans. It was also a mark of the start of the Cold War. More about this in future posts about the whole conflict of Korea.

South Korea only borders one country: North Korea. North Korea, in which should've been a bridge to the world for all Koreans when the two brother nations are unified, borders the People's Republic of China, the King of censorship and the most populous communist nation+the most polluted of the world, and the Russian Federation, in which is in a situation where former soviet nations are being invaded.

South Korea borders the island nation of Japan by water (of course, Japan is an island nation! Oops, I already mentioned that), with the  Korean Strait, and again, the controversial East Sea.
If you think that the East Sea-Sea of Japan conflict is the only geography conflict between the two East-Asian nations, you're wrong. In the southwestern part of the East sea, there is Dokdo (독도), which is made up of 2 major islands and 89 rock-sized islands, and was territory of Joeson Dynasty of Korea recorded back into the 1400's (and until the 1900's acknowledged by the Kingdom/Empire of Japan that Dokdo was Joeson territory, and later the Republic of Korea since 1948. However, modern Japan is trying to claim Dokdo, by stating that they "acquired" from the Joeson dynasty in the early years of the 20th century and even appeared on Japanese textbooks. And if South Korea and Japan, the two highest GDP per capita nations do not cooperate (they still economically do) well due to these conflicts, there will be trouble when a war near them breaks out. (Hint: Another Korean War?)

Anyways, that's it for now, thanks to whoever was reading this!

Oh, by the way, NO COPY/PASTING! I can connect with a personal memory when I found someone mad that their copyrighted news article was all over small newspapers all over the web.

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