King of Ancient Buyeo Pictured on Stamps

By Kang Hye-yeong

Korea Times Intern

The Korea Post will begin selling 1.8 million postage stamps, featuring four illustrations of King Geumwa of the ancient Buyeo Kingdom, at post offices around the country beginning Aug. 18.

The special stamps have been issued to help the Korean people, in particular youths, understand their nation's identity and roots through its struggle to fight China's attempt to annex the kingdom's history as its own, a spokesman said.

For similar purposes, Korea Post has previously issued stamps on "Dangun Wanggeom," the founding father of ancient Korea, last month.

The four versions of stamps describe the progression of Geumwa's (golden frog) birth to his rise of power as king, in its simplified form akin to four-strip cartoons found in newspapers.

Buyeo is an ancient Korean kingdom, once located north of Jilin, one of the three northeastern provinces of China.

The stamps are sold for 250 won a piece and 1,000 won for the set.

They can be used as educational material for history classes, because it depicts the story of Geumwa during the Buyeo Kingdom, introduced in Samguk Yusa, or the unofficial chronological history of the Three Kingdoms: Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje.