Korea

"Korean Peninsula" redirects here. For the geographical region, see Geography of Korea. For other uses, see Korea (disambiguation).

Korea 한국 (South Korean) 조선 (North Korean)
File:Unification flag of Korea.svg File:Flag of North Korea.svg Korean Unification Flag (top) Flag of South Korea (bottom left) Flag of North Korea (bottom right)
Anthem:  "Arirang" (regional anthem) "Aegukga" (South Korea) "Aegukka" (North Korea)
Korea shown in dark green Korea shown in dark green
Capital	Seoul (South Korea) Pyongyang (North Korea)
Largest city	Seoul
Official languages	Korean
Official script	Hangul Chosŏn'gŭl
Demonym(s)	Korean
Government	In dispute between South Korea and North Korea
• President of South Korea	Yoon Suk-yeol
• Supreme Leader of North Korea	Kim Jong Un
• Prime Minister of South Korea	Han Duck-soo
• Premier of North Korea	Kim Tok-hun
Legislature	National Assembly (South Korea) Supreme People's Assembly (North Korea)
Establishment
• Gojoseon	2333 BCE (mythological)
• Wiman Joseon	194 BCE
• Three Kingdoms	57 BCE
• Balhae and Silla Kingdoms	668
• Goryeo dynasty	918
• Joseon dynasty	17 July 1392
• Korean Empire	12 October 1897
• Japanese annexation of Korea	29 August 1910
• Korean Declaration of Independence	1 March 1919
• Establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea	11 April 1919
• Surrender of Japan and division of Korea	2 September 1945
• Establishment of the Republic of Korea	15 August 1948
• Establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea	9 September 1948
• Korean War	25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953
• Both Koreas admitted to the UN	17 September 1991
• Panmunjom Declaration	27 April 2018
Area
• Total	223,155 km2 (86,161 sq mi)
Population
• 2017 estimate	77,000,000
• Density	349.06/km2 (904.1/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+09 (Korea Standard Time and Pyongyang Time)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+82 (South Korea) +850 (North Korea)
Internet TLD	.kr (South Korea) .kp (North Korea)

Korea (Template:Lang-ko, Hanguk or 조선, Joseon) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic of Korea) comprising its southern half. Korea consists of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and several minor islands near the peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by China (Manchuria) to the north and Russia to the northeast, across the Amrok and Duman rivers. It is separated from Japan to the southeast by the Korea Strait.

During the first half of the 1st millennium, Korea was divided between three states, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, together known as the Three Kingdoms of Korea. In the second half of the 1st millennium, Silla defeated and conquered Baekje and Goguryeo, leading to the "Unified Silla" period. Meanwhile, Balhae formed in the north, superseding former Goguryeo. Unified Silla eventually collapsed into three separate states due to civil war, ushering in the Later Three Kingdoms. Toward the end of the 1st millennium, Goguryeo was resurrected as Goryeo, which defeated the two other states and unified the Korean Peninsula as a single sovereign state. Around the same time, Balhae collapsed and its last crown prince fled south to Goryeo. Goryeo (also spelled as Koryŏ), whose name developed into the modern exonym "Korea", was a highly cultured state that created the world's first metal movable type in 1234. However, multiple incursions by the Mongol Empire during the 13th century greatly weakened the nation, which eventually agreed to become a vassal state after decades of fighting. Following military resistance under King Gongmin that ended Mongol political influence in Goryeo, severe political strife followed, and Goryeo eventually fell to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon on 17 July 1392. The first 200 years of the Joseon era were marked by relative peace, and during this time the Korean alphabet was created by Sejong the Great and Confucianism became increasingly influential in the kingdom.

Joseon's two centuries of peace were broken by foreign invasions and internal factional strife from 1592 to 1637. Most notable of these invasions is the Japanese invasions of Korea, which marked the end of the Joseon dynasty's early period. Several decades later, Joseon was invaded by the Jurchens and the Manchus in 1627 and 1636 respectively, leading to an increasingly harsh isolationist policy, for which the country became known as the "hermit kingdom" in Western literature. After the end of these invasions from Manchuria, Joseon experienced a nearly 200-year period of peace and prosperity, along with cultural and technological development. What power the kingdom recovered during its isolation waned as the 18th century came to a close. Faced with internal strife, power struggles, international pressure, and rebellions at home, the kingdom declined rapidly in the late 19th century.

During the later years of the dynasty, Korea's isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of the "hermit kingdom". By the mid 19th century, with the country unwilling to modernize, and under encroachment of European powers, Joseon Korea was forced to sign unequal treaties with foreign powers. After the assassination of Empress Myeongseong in 1895, the Donghak Peasant Revolution, and the Gabo Reforms of 1894 to 1896, the Korean Empire (1897–1910) came into existence, heralding a brief but rapid period of social reform and modernization. However, in 1905, the Korean Empire signed a protectorate treaty and in 1910, Japan annexed the Korean Empire.

Japan relinquished control over Korea after formally surrendering to the Allies on 2 September 1945, in the aftermath of World War II. The Soviet Union and the United States had agreed to partition Korea along the 38th parallel, with the Soviets occupying the north and the Americans occupying the south. These circumstances became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers with two different ideologies, exacerbated by their inability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The communist government in the north received backing from the Soviet Union in opposition to the pro-Western government in the south, leading to Korea's division into two sovereign states in 1948: North Korea and South Korea. Tensions between the two resulted in North Korea invading South Korea and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. With involvement by foreign troops, the war ended in a stalemate in 1953, but without a formalised peace treaty. This status contributes to the high tensions that continue to divide the peninsula, and both states continue to claim to be the sole legitimate government of Korea. A breakthrough in the peace process came on 27 April 2018, when North Korea and South Korea signed the Panmunjom Declaration, pledging to work toward ending the Korean conflict and reaffirming the goal of reunifying the two countries.

Etymology

Main article: Names of Korea

See also: Korean romanization

Korea
North Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl	조선
Hancha	朝鮮
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Joseon McCune–Reischauer Chosŏn
South Korean name
Hangul	한국
Hanja	韓國
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Han(-)guk McCune–Reischauer Han'guk

"Korea" is the modern spelling of "Corea", a name attested in English as early as 1614. "Corea" is derived from the name of the ancient kingdom of Goryeo. Korea was transliterated as Cauli in The Travels of Marco Polo, of the Chinese 高麗 (MC: Kawlej, mod. Gāolì). This was the Hanja for the Korean kingdom of Goryeo (Template:Korean), which ruled most of the Korean peninsula during the 12th century. Korea's introduction to the West resulted from trade and contact with merchants from Arabic lands, with some records dating back as far as the 9th century. Goryeo's name was a continuation of Goguryeo (Koguryŏ) the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which was officially known as Goryeo beginning in the 5th century. The original name was a combination of the adjectives ("high, lofty") with the name of a local Yemaek tribe, whose original name is thought to have been either "Guru" (溝樓, "walled city," inferred from some toponyms in Chinese historical documents) or "Gauri" (가우리, "center"). With expanding British and American trade following the opening of Korea in the late 19th century, the spelling "Korea" appeared and gradually grew in popularity; its use in transcribing East Asian languages avoids the issues caused by the separate hard and soft Cs existing in English vocabulary derived from the Romance languages. The name Korea is now commonly used in English contexts by both North and South Korea.

In South Korea, Korea as a whole is referred to as Hanguk (한국, Template:IPA-ko, Template:Literally). The name references Samhan, referring to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula. Although written in Hanja as 韓, 幹, or 刊, this Han has no relation to the Chinese place names or peoples who used those characters but was a phonetic transcription (OC: *Gar, MC: Han or Gan) of a native Korean word that seems to have had the meaning "big" or "great", particularly in reference to leaders. It has been tentatively linked with the title khan used by the nomads of Manchuria and Central Asia.

In North Korea, Korea as a whole is referred to as Joseon (조선, Template:IPA-ko, Template:Literally). Joseon is the modern Korean pronunciation of the Hanja 朝鮮, which is also the basis of the word for Korea as a whole in Japan (朝鮮, Chōsen), China (朝鲜, Cháoxiǎn), and Vietnam (Triều Tiên). "Great Joseon" was the name of the kingdom ruled by the Joseon dynasty from 1392 until their declaration of the short-lived Great Korean Empire in 1897. King Taejo had named them for the earlier Gojoseon (고조선), who ruled northern Korea from its legendary prehistory until their conquest in 108 BCE by China's Han Empire. The Go- in Gojoseon is the Hanja word 古 and simply means "ancient" or "old"; it is a modern usage to distinguish the ancient Joseon from the later dynasty. It is unclear whether Joseon was a transcription of a native Korean name (OC *T[r]awser, MC Trjewsjen) or a partial translation into Chinese of the Korean capital Asadal (아사달), whose meaning has been reconstructed as "Morning Land" or "Mountain".

See also

• Inter-Korean summits
• Korean name
• Korean natural farming
• Korean War
• List of Korean inventions and discoveries
• National Treasures of North Korea
• National Treasures of South Korea
• North Korea–South Korea relations
• Korean reunification

Further reading

• Chun, Tuk Chu. "Korea in the Pacific Community". Social Education 52 (March 1988), 182. EJ 368 177.
• Cumings, Bruce. The Two Koreas. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1984.
• Oberdorfer, Don (2001). The Two Koreas: a Contemporary History. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465051625. OCLC 47831650.

• Focus on Asian Studies. Special Issue: "Korea: A Teacher's Guide". No. 1, Fall 1986.
• Shin, Gi-Wook (1999), Robinson, Michael (ed.), Colonial modernity in Korea, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Asia Center, ISBN 978-0-674-14255-8.
• Hart, Dennis. From Tradition to Consumption: Construction of a Capitalist Culture in South Korea. Seoul: Jimoondang, 2003.
• Jager, Sheila Miyoshi (2013). Brothers at War – The Unending Conflict in Korea. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84668-067-0.

• Joe, W.J. & Choe, H.A. Traditional Korea: A Cultural History, Seoul: Hollym, 1997.
• Joungwon, A.K. Divided Korea: The Politics of Development, Harvard University Press, 1975.
• Lee Ki-baik. A New History of Korea. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984.
• Lee Sang-sup. "The Arts and Literature of Korea". The Social Studies 79 (July–August 1988): 153–60. EJ 376 894.
• Pratt, Keith L (2006). Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea. London: Reaktion. ISBN 9781861892737. OCLC 63137295.

• Tae-Jin, Y. "The Illegality of the Forced Treaties Leading to Japan's Annexation of the Great Han Empire", In the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, Vol. 36, No. 4, 1996.
• The Gloucestershire Regiment and The Battle of the Imjin River, Korean War, UK: Glosters, archived from the original on 13 May 2008.
• "How Does Korea Compare", OECD Health Data (PDF) (briefing note), Organisation For Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009.

External links

• Template:Wikisource-inline
• The Republic of Korea
• Korea at Curlie

Template:Korea topics

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