Today in Korean history

1929 saw students in Gwangju, a south western Korean city, rising against Japan's colonial rule that began in 1910. This uprising followed numerous protests and student-led class boycotts aimed at reinstating Korean language and history education in schools. The Japanese governor-general prohibited teaching of Korean language and history, replacing them with Japanese subjects as part of a strategy to strip Koreans of their identity. The colonial era concluded in 1945 with Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.

Fast forward to 1979, President Park Chung-hee was laid to rest after being assassinated by his intelligence chief, Kim Jae-kyu. Park had seized the presidency through a military coup during his 18-year rule. After the assassination, which took place a year after the start of his ninth term, he secured the presidency for life by revising the Constitution.

In 1980, a South Korean military court handed former opposition leader Kim Dae-jung a death sentence for sedition. The administration of President Chun Doo-hwan, a general who seized power after Park's death, accused Kim of plotting a government overthrow. Kim's death sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment, and he was ultimately released a year later, receiving medical attention in the United States for a leg injury sustained during torture.

Kim later became president from 1998 to early 2003 and was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his advocacy of democracy and inter-Korean reconciliation.

North Korea made headlines in 2007 by agreeing to allow a South Korean company to conduct a scenic mountain sightseeing tour on its China border the following year. The agreement was the result of an inter-Korean summit between leaders. In 2009, North Korea claimed to have finalized the process of reprocessing spent fuel rods and achieved significant progress in weaponizing plutonium extracted from them.

This announcement came after North Korea had warned the U.S. that it would proceed independently if the U.S. did not respond favorably.

In 2010, the Koreas resumed reunions of families divided by war six decades ago, amid increased tension along their border following a series of incidents involving gunfire. This marked the second such event in a week. In 2015, the Park Geun-hye administration announced plans to reintroduce state-authored history textbooks for secondary school students. This move by Park aimed to correct what she considered to be left-wing influence in the content of these textbooks.

In 2016, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye's confidante, Choi Soon-sil, was formally arrested in connection with a massive corruption scandal. She faced multiple charges, including bribery and extortion involving prominent conglomerates. In 2019, South Korea ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, becoming the eighth nation among the world's top 10 emitters to endorse the international pact aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

In 2025, Kim Yong-nam, the former chairman of North Korea's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly and a key figure in Pyongyang's diplomacy for decades, passed away at the age of 97.