History of South Korea

Main article: South Korea

2022: Yoon Suk-yol is South Korea's new president

On March 10, 2022, it became known that Yun Suk Yol, a presidential candidate from the conservative People's Power Party, won the presidential election. He outperformed Lee Jae-myung's Democratic rival by 0.7 percentage points, the smallest margin since the country adopted a direct presidential election system in 1987. Read more here.

2020:4 skyscrapers built in Seoul in a year

Cities of the world in which the largest number of skyscrapers were built in 2020 (200 meters high or higher)

1987

A mother pleads with riot police to return her son, after he was arrested at a demonstration accusing the government of fraud in the presidential election. Kuro, South Korea, December 18, 1987

1975

South Korea. If the police catch you crossing the road in the wrong place, you will have to stand in a box of shame for 30 minutes. 1975

1971

A man is thrown out of a burning hotel with a mattress to soften the fall. Seoul, Republic of Korea, 1971.

1954

American actress Marilyn Monroe speaks to American soldiers. Korea. 1954

1953

A North Korean prisoner of war swears with American officers, in the middle of a military base of South Korean soldiers. September 1953

1952

A leaflet issued in South Korea and aimed at Chinese soldiers fighting in the Korean War on the side of the North. It depicts the Soviet Union in the form of a wolf devouring the Chinese. An approximate translation reads: "Do you want the Russian wolf to annex China?," 1952.

1950: Outbreak of the Korean War

North and South leaders Kim Jong Il and Lee Seung Man wanted the country united, but under different flags and different ideas. On the border of 38 parallels, armed skirmishes broke out many times. And on June 25, 1950, the war began. North Korean troops quickly defeated their enemy, captured the capital Seoul and by October reached the city of Busan in the very south.

Korean refugees overcome a bridge twisted by an airstrike, 1950.

And at this stage, the civil war began to turn into an international one.

More than 260 thousand Americans fought on the side of the South, not counting the US Navy and Air Force operating off the coast of Korea. In addition to the United States, the multinational forces included limited contingents of 15 countries.

The Korean People's Army could not withstand such a blow. The forces were too unequal. Suffice it to say that the North Korean army had 40 tanks, and their opponents - 500 and so on all types of modern weapons. The front quickly rolled back, crossed 38 parallels and approached the border river Yalujiang, which separates China and Korea.

South Korean military police are interrogating North Korean prisoners of war. October 20, 1950.

And only then Chinese volunteers entered the battle on the side of the DPRK, and Soviet pilots covered them from the sky.

U.S. Marine soldiers watch napalm bombing of Chinese positions during the Korean War. December 26, 1950.

1949: USSR and US troops leave Korea

In 1948, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Korea, and the Americans left the next year.

1945: The division of Korea into North and South

The fact that Korea, which for several decades was actually a colony of Japan, should be a free and independent state, was decided at a meeting of the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and the USSR in Yalta. And in August 1945, the north of the country was liberated from Japanese troops by patriots Kim Jong Il and Soviet troops. And in the south, in September, US troops did the same.

The division of Korea into the DPRK and the Republic of Korea occurred in 1945 after the defeat of Japan, which had previously ruled Korea, in World War II. The United States and the USSR signed an agreement on joint management of the country. The line of division of the zones of influence of the two superpowers passed along the 38th parallel.

1904

Former Korean Army General of Joseon Dynasty with Servants, Korean Empire, 1904.

1901

Korean swing, early 20th century.