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Korea overcomes crises with national solidarity

By Kim Yoon-bai Professor at University of Kentucky The history of the Republic of Korea is full of shocks and crises. Most arose from military confrontations and provocations from North Korea. Only two years after its establishment in 1948, the nascent republic was engulfed in an extremely bloody and destructive civil war between South and North Korea for three years. The war was never officially ended, even 60 years after its outbreak as an armistice halted hostilities. North Korea has never dropped its ultimate objective of unifying the peninsula by military means. The list of major incidents induced by the infiltration of North Korean agents should include: • In January1968, a 31-member commando team infiltrated within the striking distance of President Park Chung-hee's office/residence complex (Cheong Wa Dae or The Blue House). • Two days later, North Korea seized the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo. A crew of 83 American officers and men was released by December but not the vessel. • In 1968, a group of 130 sea-borne North Korean commandos infi

May 28, 2010

Korea exporting knowhow on dam construction

By Choi Yearn-hong The Korea Times Columnist In the 1990s, the United Nations classified Korea as a water scarce nation. Rainfall is limited to three summer months, so that multi-purpose dam construction was the basis for water storage during the dry season and flood control during the wet season, as well as hydro-electric power generation for energy supply. The first multi-purpose dam was constructed at Jeongup City, North Jeolla Province in 1926 under Japanese colonial rule. The modernization of South Korea (Korea from here on) in the 1960s required foremost a stable water supply, and thus dam construction boomed in the 1960s and 1970s. Human beings need water for living. Farms need a stable water supply. All living things need water. Factories and industrial parks need a stable water supply for their operations. Dams also protect human lives and properties from flooding in the low lands. In the early 1960s, President Park Chung-hee asked a simple question to then Economic Planning Board bureaucrats during a briefing on the proposed five-year economic development prog

May 26, 2010
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