Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, has been used to write the Korean language since its creation in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great. It may be written as Hangeul following the standard Romanization, it is the official writing system of Korea, both North. It is a co-official writing system in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin Province, China, it is sometimes used to write the Cia-Cia language spoken near the town of Indonesia. The Hangul alphabet consisted of 28 letters with 17 consonant letters and 11 vowel letters when it was created; as four became obsolete, the modern Hangul consists of total 24 letters with 14 consonant letters and 10 vowel letters. In North Korea the total is counted 40, it consists of 19 consonant letters and 21 vowel letters as it additionally includes 5 tense consonants and 20. The Korean letters are written in syllabic blocks with each alphabetic letter placed vertically and horizontally into a square dimension.
For example, the Korean word for "honeybee" is written 꿀벌, not ㄲㅜㄹㅂㅓㄹ. As it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems, it has been described as an "alphabetic syllabary" by some linguists; as in traditional Chinese writing, Korean texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left, are still written this way for stylistic purposes. Today, it is written from left to right with spaces between words and western-style punctuation; some linguists consider it among the most phonologically faithful writing systems in use today. One interesting feature of Hangul is that the shapes of its consonants mimic the shapes of the speaker's mouth when pronouncing each consonant; the Korean alphabet was called Hunminjeong'eum, after the document that introduced the script to the Korean people in 1446. The Korean alphabet is called hangeul, a name coined by Korean linguist Ju Si-gyeong in 1912; the name combines the ancient Korean word han, meaning "great", geul, meaning "script".
The word han is used to refer to Korea in general, so the name means "Korean script". It has been romanized in multiple ways: Hangeul or han-geul in the Revised Romanization of Korean, which the South Korean government uses in English publications and encourages for all purposes. Han'gŭl in the McCune–Reischauer system, is capitalized and rendered without the diacritics when used as an English word, Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries. Hānkul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies. In North Korea it is called Chosŏn'gŭl after Chosŏn, the North Korean name for Korea after the old name of Korea; the McCune–Reischauer system is used there. Until the mid-20th century, the Korean elite preferred to write using Chinese characters called Hanja, they referred to Hanja as jinseo or "true letters". Some accounts say the elite referred to the Korean alphabet derisively as'amkeul meaning "women's script", and'ahaetgeul meaning "children's script", though there is no written evidence of this.
Supporters of the Korean alphabet referred to it as jeong'eum meaning "correct pronunciation", gukmun meaning "national script", eonmun meaning "vernacular script". Before the creation of the new Korean alphabet, Koreans wrote using Classical Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate the modern Korean alphabet by hundreds of years, including Idu script, Hyangchal and Gakpil. However, due to fundamental differences between the Korean and Chinese languages, the large number of characters, many lower class Koreans were illiterate. To promote literacy among the common people, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, Sejong the Great created and promulgated a new alphabet; the Korean alphabet was designed so that people with little education could learn to write. A popular saying about the alphabet is, "A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; the project was completed in late December 1443 or January 1444, described in 1446 in a document titled Hunminjeong'eum, after which the alphabet itself was named.
The publication date of the Hunminjeongeum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosŏn'gŭl Day, is on January 15. Another document published in 1446 and titled Hunminjeong'eum Haerye was discovered in 1940; this document explains that the design of the consonant letters is based on articulatory phonetics and the design of the vowel letters are based on the principles of yin and yang and vowel harmony. The Korean alphabet faced opposition in the 1440s by the literary elite, including politician Choe Manri and other Korean Confucian scholars, they believed. They saw the circulation of the Korean alphabet as a threat to their status. However, the Korean alphabet entered popular culture as King Sejong had intended, used by women and writers of popular fiction. King Yeonsangun banned the study and publication of the Korean alphabet in 1504, after a document criticizing the king entered the public. King Jungjong abolished the Ministry of Eonmun, a governmental institution related to Hangul research, in 1506.
The late 16th century, saw a revival of the Korean alphabet as gasa and sijo poetry flourished. In the 17th century, the Korean alphabet novels became a major genre. However, the use of the Korea
North Hwanghae Province
North Hwanghae Province is a province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1954 when the former Hwanghae Province was split into North and South Hwanghae; the provincial capital is Sariwon. The province is bordered by Pyongyang and South Pyongan to the north, Kangwon to the east, Kaesong Industrial Region and South Korea's Gyeonggi Province to the south, South Hwanghae southwest. In 2003, Kaesong Directly Governed City became part of North Hwanghae. North Hwanghae is divided into 19 counties. Three of these counties were added to the province in 2010 after being split from Pyongyang. Sariwon 사리원시/沙里院市 Kaesong 개성시/開城市 Kaesong Industrial Region 개성공업지구/開城工業地區 Songrim 송림시/松林市 North Hwanghae is connected to the rest of the country by way of the Pyongbu Railway Line, which, in theory, runs from Pyongyang to Pusan, it is served by several large highways, most notably the Pyongyang-Kaesong Motorway. There are several higher-level educationary facilities in all government-run; these include the Kye Ung Sang Sariwon University of Agriculture, the Sariwon University of Geology, the Sariwon Teachers University.
North Hwanghae has many historical relics as the site of the Koryo-dynasty capital at Kaesong, a depository for many famous historic relics. The province is home to the tombs of many of the Koryo monarchs, the most famous being the tombs of kings Taejo and Kongmin, though others are spread throughout Kaesong and Kaepung county. Kaesong houses the Koguryo-era Taehungsan Fortress, built to protect the kingdom's capital at Pyongyang and enclosing the famous Kwanum Temple. Nearby to Sariwin is the famous Jongbangsan Fortress, another Koguryo satellite for the defense of Pyongyang; this fortress encompasses the 9th-century Songbulsa Buddhist temple, one of the oldest and most picturesque in the country. 행정 구역 현황 http://nk.joins.com/map/i223.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20110609223701/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2006/200605/news05/11.htm
North Korea Peace Museum
The North Korea Peace Museum is in the building constructed to house the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953. It is located in the former village of Panmunjeom in North Korea, it is located 1.2 kilometres north-west of the Joint Security Area, in the northern half of the Demilitarized Zone. The building is all that remains of the former village, since the mid-1950s, references to Panmunjom refer to the Joint Security Area itself, it is about 1.9 kilometres north-east of Kijong-dong referred to as Propaganda Village. The weapons used to kill U. S. Army Captain Arthur Bonifas and Lieutenant Mark Barrett in the axe murder incident of 1976 are housed within the Museum. There is a symbol of a dove above the door. At the time of the signing of the armistice, a copy of Pablo Picasso's The Dove was hanging inside the building; the Americans objected to it as a symbol of Communism, it was covered up. List of museums in North Korea Photos of Peace Museum Photo of axe Photo of interior of museum
Kaesong
Kaesong is a city in North Hwanghae Province in the southern part of North Korea, a former Directly Governed City and the capital of Korea during the Taebong kingdom and subsequent Goryeo dynasty. The city is near the Kaesong Industrial Region close to the border with South Korea and contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. Called Songdo while it was the ancient capital of Goryeo, the city prospered as a trade centre that produced Korean ginseng. Kaesong now functions as the DPRK's light industry centre. During the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, the city was known by the Japanese pronunciation of its name, "Kaijō". Between 1945 and 1950, Kaesong was part of South Korea and under its control; the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement left the city under North Korean control. It is the only city to have changed hands from South to North Korean control as a result of the armistice agreement. Due to the city's proximity to the border with South Korea, Kaesong has hosted cross-border economic exchanges between the two countries as well as the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Region.
As of 2009, the city had a population of 192,578. The earliest archaeological signs of habitation in the Kaesong area date from the Neolithic. Artifacts such as Jeulmun pottery, stone ware, stone axes have been excavated from Osongsan and Kaesong Nasong, the double-walled fortress of Kaesong; as Kaesong has been occupied by various states throughout centuries, its name has changed. It was in the realm of Mahan confederacy, was referred to as Busogap during the rule of Goguryeo. Before the strength of Baekje was retreated to the southwest of Jungnyeong, Mungyeong Saejae, Asan Bay in 475, the area had been a part of Baekje for about 100 years. However, it became a territory of Silla in 555, the 16th year of Jinheung of Silla's reign, its name was changed to Song'ak-gun during the period. According to the Samguk Sagi, when a castle was built in the site in 694, the third year of Hyoso of Silla's reign, Kaesong was referred to as "Song'ak". Therefore, it is assumed. Silla began to decline in late 9th century, a period of rival warlords ensued.
In 898, Kaesong fell under the hand of Gung Ye, the founder of his short-lived state and became a part of Goryeo in 919 by its founder, Wang Geon, enthroned as Taejo of Goryeo. Taejo established the capital in the south of Song'ak, incorporated Kaesong into Song'ak under the name of "Gaeju". In 919, Kaesong became the national capital. In 960, the 11th year of Gwangjong of Goryeo's reign, the city was renamed Gaegyeong, in 995, the 14th year of Seonjong of Goryeo's reign, it was elevated to "Gaesong-bu"; the Gaeseong-bu is a combined term of Song'ak-gun, Gaesong-gun, different from the region of the pre-1945 Gaesong-ri, Seo-myeon, Kaepung-gun. In 1010, the first year of Hyeonjong of Goryeo's reign, the palace and houses were burnt down during the second conflict in the Goryeo–Khitan War, so in 1018, Gaesong-bu was relegated for the "bu" system, became to govern the three hyeon unites of Jeongju and Gangeum. In the late 12th century, there was instability in the countryside. A slave named Manjǒk led a group of slaves who gathered outside Kaesong in 1198.
The revolt plot was suppressed by Choe Chung-heon. When Yi Songgye overthrew Goryeo in 1392 and established the Joseon as Taejo of Joseon, he moved the Korean capital from Kaesong to Hanyang in 1394. Kaesong remained a part of Gyeonggi Province until the Korean War; when Korea was partitioned at the 38th parallel after World War II, Kaesong was on the southern side of the line. However, the battle of Kaesong-Munsan was won by the Korean People's Army in the first days of the Korean War; the city was recaptured by UN Forces on 9 October 1950 during the pursuit of the KPA that followed the successful Inchon landings. UN Forces abandoned the city 16 December 1950 during the withdrawal to the Imjin River following the Chinese People's Volunteer Army intervention in the war. Kaesong would remain under Chinese/North Korean control until the end of the war. Ceasefire negotiations began in Kaesong on 10 July 1951, but were moved to Panmunjom on 25 October 1951; the Korean Armistice Agreement signed on 27 July 1953 recognised North Korean control over Kaesong making it the only city to change control from South Korea to North Korea as a result of the war.
Postwar Kaesong and the part of Kyonggi Province that came to be occupied was organized into "Kaesong Region". In 1955, Kaesong became a "Directly Governed City". In 2002, Kaesŏng Industrial Region was formed from part of Kaesong. In 2003, the remaining part of Kaesong became part of North Hwanghae Province; the city is close to the Demilitarized Zone that divides South Korea. Located in the center of Korea, Kaesong is the southernmost city of North Korea, it is bordered by Kaepung, Changpung and Kumchon counties. Kanghwa Island of Incheon Municipality lies just south, beyond a narrow channel, it covers an area of 1,309 km ², the urban district is surrounded by Pongmyong mountains. The city center surrounds the much smaller Mt. Janam, on, located the city's iconic Kim Il Sung statue. In the northern part of Kaesong, the end of the Ahobiryŏng range creates the northernmost border of Kaesong City; this range consists of Mts. Chŏnma, Sŏnggŏ, Suryong, Chesŏk, Ogwan. With the exception of the mountainous northeastern region, most areas of Kaesong consist of low h
Peace Village (North Korea)
Kijŏng-dong, Kijŏngdong, or Kijŏng tong, is a village in P'yŏnghwa-ri, Kaesong-si, North Korea. It is situated in the North's half of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Known in North Korea as Peace Village, it has been referred to as'Propaganda Village' by those outside North Korea in South Korean and Western media. Kijŏng-dong is one of two villages permitted to remain in the four-kilometre-wide DMZ set up under the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. According to the North Korean government, the village has a collective farm, run and maintained by 200 local families living there, serviced by a child-care center, a kindergarten and a primary school and a secondary school, together with a hospital. However, according to South Korea, the town is an uninhabited village, established during the 1950s in a seeming attempt of using propaganda skills and efforts to encourage pro-North Korean defection from people in South Korea as well as to house and provide for the North Korean Korean People's Army troops manning the wide and extensive network of artillery-gun positions, defensive fortifications and underground command-and-control centres and marshalling-bunkers that surround the border zone.
The village features a number of brightly-painted multi-story buildings and low-rise apartments, with all structures there wired for and provided with electricity. The small town was oriented and positioned such that the bright-blue roofs and white side-walls of the various residential buildings built next to the massive pole flying the North Korean flag would be particularly-distinguishing features when viewed from the southern side across the border between the two Koreas. Scrutiny with modern telescopic lenses and clearer and sharper images produced, has led to the conclusion amongst many that the village's buildings are empty shells of concrete and steel which lack not only window-glass but interior rooms and floors as well, with lights in the buildings and structures turned on and off at preset times and empty sidewalks in the small town being swept by caretakers as part of efforts by the North Korean authorities to preserve the illusion of activity and life in the village; the village is surrounded by extensive and vast cultivated farm-fields which are visible, not only to visitors to the North Korean side of the DMZ, but to visitors to the South Korean side as well.
In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 98.4-metre-tall flagpole with a 130-kilogram flag of South Korea in Daeseong-dong. The North Korean government responded by building an taller one, the Panmunjom flagpole, at 160 m with a 270 kg flag of North Korea in Kijŏng-dong, 1.2 km across the demarcation line from South Korea, in what some have called the "flagpole war". For over a decade, the flagpole was the tallest in the world. In 2010, the flagpole became the second-tallest in the world at the time, after the National Flag Square in Baku, Azerbaijan at 162 m, it is now the fourth-tallest flagpole in the world, after the Dushanbe Flagpole in Tajikistan, at 165 m, the Jeddah Flagpole in Saudi Arabia, at 170 m. Massive loudspeakers mounted on several of the buildings deliver DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the South, they extolled the North's virtues in great detail and urged disgruntled soldiers and farmers to walk across the border to be received as brothers. Few if any took up the offer, they switched to anti-Western speeches, agitprop operas, patriotic marching music for up to 20 hours a day.
From 2004 to 2016, North and South agreed to end their loudspeaker broadcasts at each other. The broadcasts resumed in 2016 due to escalating tensions as a result of the January 2016 nuclear test, though the South unilaterally decided to halt its broadcasts at midnight on 22 April 2018 as a gesture of goodwill days before the 2018 inter-Korean summit was held on 27 April. Potemkin village
China
China the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering 9,600,000 square kilometers, it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. China emerged as one of the world's earliest civilizations, in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, or dynasties, beginning with the semi-legendary Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE. Since China has expanded, re-unified numerous times. In the 3rd century BCE, the Qin established the first Chinese empire; the succeeding Han dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC until 220 AD, saw some of the most advanced technology at that time, including papermaking and the compass, along with agricultural and medical improvements.
The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty and Northern Song completed the Four Great Inventions. Tang culture spread in Asia, as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and Horn of Africa. Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution; the Chinese Civil War resulted in a division of territory in 1949, when the Communist Party of China established the People's Republic of China, a unitary one-party sovereign state on Mainland China, while the Kuomintang-led government retreated to the island of Taiwan. The political status of Taiwan remains disputed. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China's economy has been one of the world's fastest-growing with annual growth rates above 6 percent. According to the World Bank, China's GDP grew from $150 billion in 1978 to $12.24 trillion by 2017. Since 2010, China has been the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and since 2014, the largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.
China is the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget; the PRC is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as it replaced the ROC in 1971, as well as an active global partner of ASEAN Plus mechanism. China is a leading member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, WTO, APEC, BRICS, the BCIM, the G20. In recent times, scholars have argued that it will soon be a world superpower, rivaling the United States; the word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. It is not a word used by the Chinese themselves, it has been traced through Portuguese and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Cīna, used in ancient India."China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn, in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna.
Cīna was first used including the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu. In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived from the name of the Qin dynasty. Although this derivation is still given in various sources, it is complicated by the fact that the Sanskrit word appears in pre-Qin literature; the word may have referred to a state such as Yelang. The meaning transferred to China as a whole; the origin of the Sanskrit word is still a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China"; the shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó, a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne. It was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing, it was used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians". The name Zhongguo is translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 2.24 million and 250,000 years ago. The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire, were discovered in a cave at Zhoukoudian near Beijing; the fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Hunan. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BCE, Damaidi around 6000 BCE, Dadiwan from 5800–5400 BCE, Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BCE; some scholars have suggested. According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE; the dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period; the succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE.
Their oracle bone script
Seoul
Seoul the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. With surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province, Seoul forms the heart of the Seoul Capital Area. Seoul is ranked as the fourth largest metropolitan economy in the world and is larger than London and Paris. Strategically situated on the Han River, Seoul's history stretches back over two thousand years, when it was founded in 18 BCE by the people of Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea; the city was designated the capital of Korea under the Joseon dynasty. Seoul is surrounded by a mountainous and hilly landscape, with Bukhan Mountain located on the northern edge of the city; as with its long history, the Seoul Capital Area contains five UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Changdeok Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. More Seoul has been a major site of modern architectural construction – major modern landmarks include the N Seoul Tower, the 63 Building, the Lotte World Tower, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Lotte World, Trade Tower, COEX, the IFC Seoul.
Seoul was named the 2010 World Design Capital. As the birthplace of K-pop and the Korean Wave, Seoul received over 10 million international visitors in 2014, making it the world's 9th most visited city and 4th largest earner in tourism. Today, Seoul is considered a leading and rising global city, resulting from the South Korean economic boom - referred to as the Miracle on the Han River - which transformed it into the world's 7th largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$635.4 billion in 2014 after Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles. International visitors reach Seoul via AREX from the Incheon International Airport, notable for having been rated the best airport for nine consecutive years by the Airports Council International. In 2015, it was rated Asia's most livable city with the second highest quality of life globally by Arcadis, with the GDP per capita in Seoul being $39,786. Inhabitants of Seoul are faced with a high cost of living, for which the city was ranked 6th globally in 2017.
Seoul is an expensive real estate market, ranked 5th in the world for the price of apartments in the downtown center. With major technology hubs centered in Gangnam and Digital Media City, the Seoul Capital Area is home to the headquarters of 15 Fortune Global 500 companies, including Samsung, LG, Hyundai. Ranked sixth in the Global Power City Index and Global Financial Centres Index, the metropolis exerts a major influence in global affairs as one of the five leading hosts of global conferences. Seoul has hosted the 1986 Asian Games, 1988 Summer Olympics, 2002 FIFA World Cup, more the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit; the city has been known in the past by the names Wiryeseong, Hanseong, Keijō. During Japan's annexation of Korea, "Hanseong" was renamed "Keijō" by the Imperial authorities to prevent confusion with the hanja'漢', which refers to Han people or the Han dynasty and in Japanese is a term for "China", its current name originated from the Korean word meaning "capital city", believed to have descended from an ancient word, which referred to Gyeongju, the capital of Silla.
Ancient Gyeongju was known in documents by the Chinese-style name Geumseong, but it is unclear whether the native Korean-style name Seorabeol had the same meaning as Geumseong. Unlike most place names in Korea, "Seoul" has no corresponding hanja. On January 18, 2005, the Seoul government changed its official Chinese name from the historic Hancheng, still in common use, to Shou'er. Settlement of the Han River area, where present-day Seoul is located, began around 4000 BCE. Seoul is first recorded as the capital of Baekje in the northeastern Seoul area. There are several city walls remaining in the area. Pungnaptoseong, an earthen wall located southeast Seoul, is believed to have been at the main Wiryeseong site; as the Three Kingdoms competed for this strategic region, control passed from Baekje to Goguryeo in the 5th century, from Goguryeo to Silla in the 6th century. In the 11th century Goryeo, which succeeded Unified Silla, built a summer palace in Seoul, referred to as the "Southern Capital".
It was only from this period. When Joseon replaced Goryeo, the capital was moved to Seoul, where it remained until the fall of the dynasty; the Gyeongbok Palace, built in the 14th century, served as the royal residence until 1592. The other large palace, constructed in 1405, served as the main royal palace from 1611 to 1872. After Joseon changed her name to the Korean Empire in 1897, Hwangseong designated Seoul; the city was surrounded by a massive circular stone wall to provide its citizens security from wild animals and attacks. The city has grown beyond those walls and although the wall no longer stands, the gates remain near the downtown district of Seoul, including most notably Sungnyemun and Heunginjimun (commonly known as Dong
