CHAPTER ONE Korea and the Korean People Korea Korea is a peninsula in East Asia that sticks out from northeastern China into the sea It is mountainous on the eastern side of the country and flatter in the west Japan lies about 100 miles 160 km to the east across a narrow sea Foreign Influence Throughout its history Korea was influenced by its neighbors China and Japan As the first kingdoms formed in Korea about two thousand years ago Chinese leaders ruled a large empire known for its wealth and power Thinkers there formed a philosophy called Confucianism that taught people how to live moral lives Koreans admired the Chinese Korean kings and teachers wrote using Chinese characters From around A D 400 the people began to follow Confucianism Buddhism an ancient religion that started in India also spread to Korea from China Opposite Korea is a mountainous region especially on the eastern side The best soil for farming is found along the southern and western coasts 4
KOREAN PENINSULA CHINA RUSSIA NORTH KOREA Korea Bay P’yongyang Sea of Japan Seoul SOUTH KOREA Strait Korea Yellow Sea 100 miles 150 kilometers JAPAN 5
A Korean worker carries supplies under the watchful eyes of Japanese soldiers in the early 1900s Koreans changed some of the things they learned from China For example the Chinese made a beautiful green pottery called celadon Korean potters made celadon too but they cut designs into the pots and sometimes made them blue or tan instead of green 6
Struggles with Neighbors Korea struggled with its larger neighbors Sometimes the Koreans fought the Chinese and Japanese to stop them taking their land In the early 1900s Japan gained control over Korea and ruled the land from 1910 to 1945 The Japanese ruled harshly They took away Koreans land shut down Korean schools and banned the teaching of Korean history and language A Divided Land In 1945 Japan lost World War II and its troops were forced to leave Korea The land became divided into two countries A communist leader Kim Il Sung led North Korea Syngman Rhee became the ruler in South Korea He was backed by the United States In 1950 North Korea’s army invaded South Korea The United States and other countries sent many soldiers to help the South Koreans In 1953 the two sides agreed to stop fighting but they still have not signed a peace treaty Today soldiers from the two Koreas patrol each side of the long fence that divides the North from the South Since the war North Korea has had many problems The government is a communist dictatorship that gives its people very THE KING AND THE ALPHABET A system of writing based on Chinese characters was used in Korea for many hundreds of years To write people had to learn thousands of characters In 1440 King Sejong of Korea told teachers to develop a new way of writing They invented an alphabet of just 24 characters that was easier to learn This alphabet is still used in Korea today 7
