Introduction
The Republic of Korea (大韓民國) is abbreviated to ‘Korea (韓國)’ or ‘South Korea’. It consists of a long peninsula extending from north to south and about 3,200 islands. The north borders North Korea along the demilitarized zone and the ceasefire line created after the armistice agreement in 1953; the east and south face Japan across the East and South Seas; and the west across the West Sea faces China. It is a country belonging to East Asia, along with China and Japan. Administrative districts include 1 special city (Seoul Metropolitan City), 1 special autonomous city (Sejong Special Self-Governing City), 6 metropolitan cities (Busan Metropolitan City, Incheon Metropolitan City, Daejeon Metropolitan City, Daegu Metropolitan City, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and Ulsan Metropolitan City), and 3 special self-governing provinces.
It consists of six roads (Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, and Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province). According to the Constitution, the Republic of Korea defines the Korean Peninsula and its affiliated territories as the Republic of Korea’s territory, so it established five administrative districts (South Pyongan Province, North Pyongan Province, South Hamgyong Province, North Hamgyong Province, and Hwanghae Province) in the area north of the armistice line, but after the signing of the Armistice Agreement in 1953, it does not have effective administrative power.
Since the Gojoseon period, several dynasties have repeatedly appeared and disappeared in the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria, but since the Goryeo Dynasty, the territory of the dynasties has been mainly located within the Korean Peninsula. Compared to neighboring countries, the dynasties have a relatively long lifespan. It began a path of full-fledged modernization in the late 19th century but suffered division and war in the mid-20th century following Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century. Since then, rapid economic growth has occurred since the 1960s, and political democratization has occurred since the 1980s.
Nature of Korea
The Korean peninsula generally shows an east-high-west-low pattern, with the Taebaek Mountains at the center, with high elevations in the east and low elevations in the west. It is presumed that this tilt-dong topography was formed by faults and valleys that occurred after the 3rd Miocene. Accordingly, most of Korea’s tall mountains are located on the east coast, forming the backbone of the landscape. The high mountain range has a steep slope to the east, approaching the east coast, but has a gentle slope to the west, gradually lowering its altitude, reaching the west coast. Rivers flow to the west and south along the slopes between these mountainous areas, and relatively wide alluvial plains are formed in the middle and lower reaches of the rivers.
Volcanic landforms are developed in the Baekdu Mountain area, Cheorwon-Pyeonggang, Singye-Goksan area, and Jeju Island and Ulleungdo Island. Volcanic landforms in Korea are relatively sparsely distributed, the most representative of which is the Baekdu Mountain region. Baekdu Mountain is a dormant volcano, as recorded in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, with three eruptions and lava flows in 1597, 1668, and 1702. The top of Mt. Baekdu appears to have been formed by a volcanic eruption during the Tertiary Period, and is a bell-shaped volcano composed mainly of alkaline trachyte rocks. However, below 2,200m above sea level, lava erupted during the Quaternary period to form a lava plain, showing the form of a shield volcano. The central crater collapsed and became a caldera, where water accumulates to form a pond.
In addition to Baekdu Mountain, the Baekdu Mountain area includes Daeyeonjibong (大脂峰: 2,358m), Soyeonjibong (小脂峰: 2,115m), Ganbaeksan Mountain (間白山: 2,162m), Sobaeksan Mountain (小白山: 2,172m), and Bukpotae Mountain (北). There are volcanoes such as Mt. 胞胎山 (2,288m) and Mt. Duryu (2,309m). In particular, the lava flows that erupted along the valley of the Baekdu Volcanic Belt during the Quaternary Pleistocene covered part of the Gaema Plateau and Manchuria, with an area of 240 km from east to west and 400 km from north to south. The lava fields of Cheorwon-Pyeonggang and Singye-Goksan were formed by the eruption of basalt during the Quaternary period. The center of Yeolha’s eruption at the time is believed to be a small volcano called Apsan (453m) located about 3.5km southwest of Pyeonggang.
Part of the lava flow appears to have flowed along the Han River Valley and reached the entire Jeongok area. At that time, the lava flow flowed down the river bed and covered the river valley in Baekui-ri, Cheongsan-myeon, Yeoncheon-gun. It can be seen along the Hantangang River. Volcanoes on Jeju Island erupted from the end of the Tertiary to the beginning of the Quaternary, and volcanic activity can be divided into five periods. Lava appears to have erupted more than 79 times in total, and the shape of the volcano appears differently accordingly.
The summit of Hallasan forms a bell volcano, but below 1,800m it forms a shield volcano. At the top of the mountain is Baeknokdam, a crater lake about 600m east-west and 500m north-south. In addition, about 360 parasitic volcanoes are distributed at the foot of Hallasan Mountain, the most representative ones being Cheondangbong (1,707m), Eohuak (1,025m), Eoseungsaengak (1,176m), and Seongpanak. (城板岳: 1,215m), etc. According to Dongguk Yeoji Seungnam and the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, there were volcanic eruptions in 1002, 1007, 1455, and 1570, so Hallasan is also a dormant volcano. Jeju also has lava caves such as Sagul and Manjanggul in Gimnyeong and Hyeopjaegul in Hallim.
Ulleungdo is a bell volcano, estimated to have been formed at the end of the Tertiary period, and is composed of trachyte and andesite. To the north of Seonginbong Peak (984m), the highest peak, there is Nari Basin, a crater. Nari Basin has an area of about 2㎢ and is located at an altitude of about 250m above sea level. There is a small volcano called Albong in the basin, and there is another small volcano in the crater at the top, which looks like an egg. Dokdo is divided into two volcanic islands, and at least two craters are observed. However, its creation date is still uncertain.
Weather of Korea
The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula that protrudes from the eastern end of the Eurasian continent, and the Republic of Korea extends from north to south across 33 to 43 degrees north latitude. The Taebaek Mountain Range, which forms part of the peninsula, is located along the peninsula, so although the country is small, the climate in the east, west, south, and north is diverse. In addition, because it is located in the temperate zone of mid-latitudes, various trends can be seen in seasonal changes as well as regional diversity.
In winter, strong cold and dry northwest monsoon winds blow under the influence of the Siberian High Pressure. As latitude decreases, winter temperatures increase. Because the Taebaek Mountains in the eastern region block the northwest wind, winter temperatures on the east coast are higher than those in the central and western regions of the same latitude. The average temperature of the coldest month varies from -6.9 to 3.6℃ depending on the region. Summer is hot and humid due to the influence of the North Pacific air mass. Extratropical cyclones, monsoon fronts, and typhoons cause rainfall. Annual precipitation varies from 1,191 to 2,030 mm depending on the region, but it has the characteristic that about half of the precipitation occurs during the early summer rainy season. There are an average of 3.4 typhoons affecting Korea per year. The average temperature of the hottest month varies from 19.7 to 26.7 degrees Celsius depending on the region.
The highest temperatures occur in August, when the hot and humid North Pacific air mass dominates eastern Asia. When the North Pacific air mass expands after the end of July, when the rainy season ends, the weather becomes clear and solar radiation increases accordingly. Also, in midsummer, when this air mass exerts the greatest influence, the temperature difference between regions is not very large. At this time, the vertical temperature difference is larger than the horizontal temperature difference.
The hottest region on the Korean Peninsula is the Yeongnam inland region centered around Daegu. This is because this area is an inland basin, so ground heating is severe and winds blowing over the surrounding mountains cause high winds. Winter begins early in the northern inland region, centered on the Gaema Plateau, and gradually moves south. Spring, on the other hand, is earlier in the south and later in the north. Therefore, the winter period is long in the northern region and short in the southern region, and the spring and fall period is very short in the northern region. The distribution of cherry blossom blooming dates and frost-free days well reflects the climatic differences between North and South Korea.
People and ethics of Korea
Research on the formation of the Korean people is not clear, but the general explanation is that people who immigrated from the northwest and northeast of the Korean Peninsula and across the west coast mixed with those who lived on the Korean Peninsula and became people who shared ethnic characteristics.
Specifically, it is as follows: The Yemaek people, a part of the Altai people, a northern people, moved to Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula after the Neolithic Age, and in the process of founding and settling in Buyeo, Goguryeo, Ye, and Baekje, they lived on the Korean Peninsula. The Yemaek people began to live mixed with them, and through the Bronze and Iron Ages, the Yemaek people mixed with them around the 1st century BC when they founded Buyeo and Goguryeo and conquered Nakrang. By the 7th century, Goguryeo also conquered the Malgal people, creating a hybrid of the Goguryeo people. was added. Among the three Han states in the south before the Three Kingdoms period, the Mahan and Byeonhan were members of the Goyemaek tribe who came from the north early on. Mahan territory became the foundation for the founding of Baekje, and Mahan and Baekje were Japanese. It has traces of human exchanges with. In Jinhan, tribes that had learned metal culture in the northern part of the Korean peninsula moved south relatively late, mixed with the indigenous people, and came to live within the territory of Silla.
In this way, the Korean people who settled on the Korean Peninsula constitute the absolute majority in terms of ethnic composition, but there are also quite a few who have settled and lived beyond the border of the Korean Peninsula. For example, from the Unified Silla period to the Goryeo period, there are records of not only people near the Korean Peninsula but also people from Central Asia and West Asia migrating and settling within the Korean Peninsula. Immigrants were assimilated into Joseon culture after the middle of the Joseon Dynasty, and their original identity almost disappeared.
After the founding of the country in the late 19th century, people who immigrated and settled in the Korean Peninsula again became noticeable, including immigrants from China called overseas Chinese, ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Manchuria during the Japanese colonial period and then acquired Chinese nationality, and people who came to Korea in search of work after the 1980s. Asian immigrants (Vietnamese, Mongolian, Thai) who settled in the country today form part of Korea.
Those called overseas Chinese are mainly people who immigrated from Shandong Province, China starting in the late 19th century and mainly adopted the Republic of China nationality during the Cold War in East Asia after the Korean War. After the Korean government restricted economic rights in the 1960s and began emigrating overseas, the number decreased to about 20,000 due to Korean naturalization and overseas migration. There are many people living in metropolitan areas such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Busan who work in the restaurant industry and oriental medicine businesses.
People called Korean-Chinese are people who began their voluntary migration in the late 19th century and settled mainly in the Manchuria region north of the Duman River due to the immigration policy of the colonial government during the Japanese colonial period. After liberation, they acquired Chinese nationality, and began settling down in South Korea in the late 1980s. As of 2020, approximately 660,000 people live in Korea, and they are concentrated in Garibong-dong and Daerim-dong in Seoul and Wongok-dong in Ansan.
In addition, as of 2020, Vietnam (210,000 people), Thailand (180,000 people), the United States (145,000 people), Uzbekistan (65,000 people), the Philippines (60,000 people), and Japan (26,000 people) Thousands of immigrants living in Korea. As of 2020, there are 2,036,075 immigrants residing in Korea, accounting for approximately 3.9% of the Korean population.
Conclusion
Gojoseon, a country located on the Korean Peninsula at the eastern end of the Asian continent, was the first nation known to have been founded around 2300 BC and existed until 108 BC. After the Three Kingdoms Period of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla and the Northern and Southern Kingdoms Period, Goryeo was established in the Middle Ages, and Joseon was later established and continued until modern times. After the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945 and after World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided into North and South at 38 degrees latitude due to the division and stationing of U.S. and Soviet troops, and the Republic of Korea was established in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in 1948. The Korean War broke out in 1950, and there has been a ceasefire since 1953. It remains a divided country to this day.