korea

South
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Learning how to love everyone

SECOND IMPORTANT THING ABOUT SOUTH KOREA
South Korea is becoming a Christian nation. In 1900 there were 300,000 Christians. In 2005 there are almost 24 million, which is 49% of the total population. The South Korean Christians are mostly evangelical Protestants but there are some Catholics. There are various other faith, including 47% Buddhists, 3% Confucian, and spirit worshippers at less than 1%. Catholic missionaries came in 1785. Protes-tants came in the 1880's. Korea became Christian because of these reasons. First, the Koreans already believed that they were heaven descended people and that there was one God named Hwan-In. Second, Christianity goes well with the Korean philosophy of being "a benefit to all mankind". Third, Jewish and Korean histories are similar in that they are both small countires and Rome and Japan oppressed them in similar ways. Fourth, Protestant missionaries made educa-tion open to everyone, rich, poor, boys, and girls. Fifth, the mission-aries used hangul, the Korean alphabet, instead of Chinese, used by Korean rulers, and that resulted in good literacy and education for every-one. Sixth, during the Japanese time, Christians wouldn't worship the Japanese Emperor as God. So, Korean independence developed in churches and mission schools. Seventh, Christian thinking made a good economy. Now, 11 of the 12 biggest churches in the world are in Seoul. The Yoido Full Gospel Church is the biggest one, having 540,000 members. All the members are in small groups, so it is like a giant Creekside Church, which is the one I belong to. There are 10,646 South Korean Protestant missionaries in over 150 countries, many in the United States. These days the Koreans are hoping that soon the North will open to Christianity and being helped and they want the Korean peninsula to be the center of Asian Christianity.

Tell me about the first Christian missionaries and the first Korean Christians. Yee-Sung-Hun was the first Korean Catholic, baptized with the Christian name Peter. One of the first Protestant mis-sionaries, R.J. Thomas, came to Korea in 1885 but he was beheaded. When he was about to be killed, he gave his Bible to a wrestler and prayed for him and he later became a Christian.

Country of the Month

Tell me about South Korea. South Korea is called the Republic of Korea while North Korea is called the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. South Korea is the southern half of the penisula off of China near Japan. It used to be called Choson, which means the "Land of the Morning Calm". The eastern part is mostly mountainous but the west and south is mostly hills and valleys. The highest peak Hallasan is a crater lake on Cheju Island, the only tropical place in Korea. Some wild flowers there are roses, camelia, lilac, azeleas, hibiscus, and crisanthamum. Some fruit trees there are apples, pears, peaches, persimmons, cherries, and citrus on Cheju. There are 48,400,000 people in South Korea, mostly in cities. Seoul is a capital city of 11,000,000 people. Seoul has multiplied ten times since the 1950's. There are underground malls. There are 30,000 stores in Dongdaemun, which is a giant bazaar of giant malls. At midnight, the number of people in stores shopping is the same as it is in the day. Pusan is a port city on the south-eastern coast of 4,000,000. Kyongju, in the southwest is Korea's ancient capital. Daegu, in the east, is where Hyundai makes cars. Incheon, on the west coast, has their huge international airport.
Tell me about the history of Korea. A dynasty is when a country is ruled by kings that are from the same family for a long time. Silla was a Buddhist dynasty in the 8th century. The next was Koryo, which was famous for celadon ceramics and the invention of the movable-type printing press in 1234. General Yi rebelled and turned it into the Choson dynasty in 1392. The Choson dynasty is called the "Forgotten Kingdom" because they wouldn't let anybody in except the Chinese. Most lived under a feudal system, where the rich ate most of the money. IN 1446, King Sejong invented han-gul, the Korean alphabet. Japan fought with the Choson to defeat the Chinese in 1894, but then Japan took over Choson in 1910.

by Noah Arthur

Country of the Month         Restaurant

Jan 2003 - Armenia            La Mediterranee, Berkeley
Feb 2003 - Poland              Old Krakow, San Francisco
Mar 2003 - Ireland             Kells, San Francisco
Apr 2003 - Jamaica            Jamaica Station, Oakland
May 2003 - El Salvador      Balompie, San Francisco
Jun 2003 - Nepal                Kathmandu, Albany
Aug 2003 - Turkey             Bosphorus, Berkeley
Oct 2003 - Cambodia         Angkor Wat, San Francisco
Dec 2003 - Philippines        Aroma Cafe, Concord
Jan 2004 - Saudi Arabia      Rihab's Bakery, Belmont
Feb 2004 - Mexico             El Huarache Azteca, Oakland

Country of the Month         Restaurant

Mar 2004 - Mongolia          Col. Lee's Mongolian BBQ, Mtn View
May 2004 - Switzerland      Fondue Fred's, Berkeley
Jul 2004 - Afghanistan        Da Afghanan Kabob House, Fremont
Sep 2004 - Morocco          Menara Moroccan Restaurant, San Jose
Nov 2004 - Portugal           Souza's Restaurant, San Jose
Jan 2005 - Thailand            Saysetha, Oakland
Mar 2005 - Tibet                Taste of Himalaya, San Francisco
Apr 2005 - South Korea      Sahn's Korean Cafe, Oakland
Jun 2005 - North Korea      Jong Ga House, Oakland
Jul 2005 - Japan

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FIRST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT SOUTH KOREA
Korea is a divided nation. When a nation is divided that means it used to be one country but now it is two. Korea now is two separate countries: North Korea is Communist and South Korea is a free democracy, where the people choose who gets to rule by voting. In 1904, Japan conquered Korea. The United States, England, Canada, Australia, and other allies fought Japan and won. Russia said that it would fight the Japanese but it didn't until the last two days of World War II. They sent their army to take part of Japan-owned Korea. The United Nations were going to have elections in Korea in both parts to get one president for the whole country. But the Russians pounded their table at the UN with their shoes and got up and left because they were worried that the Communist candidate would lose. The UN had a vote anyway but when they came to Korea, the North was closed off. The elections only happed in the south. The two countries got mad at each other. In June 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea and captured Seoul and all of South Korea except a tiny area around the city of Pusan. Then US and their allies came in a fought and recaptured South Korea and North Korea up to the Yalu River, but then the Chinese army, poured in and drove the UN army back past Seoul. After two years of fighting between the UN army and the Chinese army it was a stalemate and Korea had to remain divided. North Korea tried to build 20 secret tunnels but the South found all of them and now they are tourist attractions. Also the North Koreans tried to assasinate the South Korean president in the Blue House, which is the South Korean equivalent to the White House.

THIRD IMPORTANT THING ABOUT SOUTH KOREA
South Korea is now a free democracy. In 1945, two US Army colonels were told to draw a line on the 38th parallel dividing Korea into two halves. The colonels thought that it would just be temporary occupation zones by the Soviets and the US, but they are still divided today. Now there are millions of people that are sad about a divided Korea. The main reason is because friends and relatives are separated and North Korea does not allow people going in and out. There was once a chance for people to see each other again in 2002. It had been 52 years. In 1979, their President Park was assassinated. In 1980, 200 college students were killed by their army in Gwangju. Up until 1987 South Korea had military rule where the army ruled and there was a lot of discontent. President Roh Tae Woo was a general and they thought that there would be more military rule but he made South Korea a free country in 1988. The country especially wanted freedom because the summer Olympic Games were there and military rule would make them look bad. South Korea has had six constitutions since World War II and the sixth one made South Korea a free democracy in 1988.

Is there much wildlife in South Korea? There is not many big animals in South Korea because of city growth. But there are birds everywhere. Once, there were many big mam-mals in South Korea, but deve-lopment of forests has caused a huge decline in mam-mals. The mammals include tigers, leopards, lynx, bears, and deer. Now, there are lots of birds. They include great egrets, cattle egrets, white storks, stellars sea eagles, manchur-ian cranes, broad-billed rollers, daurian red-starts, black-tailed godwits, baikal teal ducks, hoopoes, smew ducks, little terns, and black-winged stilts. There are lots of butterflies in South Korea. they seem to be mostly swallow-tails.

FOURTH IMPOR-TANT THING ABOUT SOUTH KOREA
South Korea is a very prosperous nation. South Korea is far more prosperous than the North. Now South Koreans make $19,000 per year per person. In the North it is only $800 per year per person. South Koreans make 20 times more. South Korea was not always prosperous. Until 1976, North Korea was a more prosperous because they had more resources like coal and iron. Something the North did that the South didn't do was "juche", which mean self-reliance. That made their economy bad. For example, they didn't make ships and trade for food but tried to make food. South Korea exports electronics, cars, manufactured goods, airplanes, and ships. South Korea has the 12th largest economy in the world, but they only have 48 million people.

How good is Korean food? The food was great! The restaurants we ate at were Sahn's Korean Cafe and Jong Ga House. At Sahn's I had chips of flat fish. At Jong Ga I had whole fish. There was a food at Jong Ga called bean jello. I did not try it because it looked really gross and Mommy said it didn't have much taste. In the Korean restaurant the big plates go right in front of the people who ordered them. Then there are a lot of little bowls of other things that we did not order covering the table. There were little bowls of sea-weed, baby fried fishies, kim chee which is very spicy and vinegary vegetables, steamed egg, and kim chee soup. The favorite food was bulgogee. It was spicy marinated beef wrapped in a leaf. I think you should go to a Korean restaurant.

Tell me about the Korean tiger. Koreans are proud of the Korean tiger even though they are very rare and may be extinct. It is actually a Siberian tiger. The picture to the right is an embroidery of a tiger worn on soldiers' uniforms from the Choson Dynasty.
Tell me about the Korean crane. They are also proud of the Manchurian crane. It does still live there though it is rare. The embroidery was also worn on soldiers' uniforms. The difference in the embroideries is rank.

What are the Koreans world famous for? They are very famous for their celadon porcelain, which is light bluish-green from the Choson Dynasty, that no one could copy, as well as for Hyundai cars. They are famous for their prosperity, and that they are becoming a Christian nation.
What do you admire about the Korea people? I admire how they accepted Christ so well. I also admire that they send out missionaries even to the United States.
What do you pray to Jesus about South Korea? I agree with their prayers that they would have the chance to help North Koreans and that Korea would be united.
Tell me three unique customs from South Korea. They eat silkworms and call it bundeji. I would eat a silkworm. There are place in South Korea like huge stores but people don't buy stuff in them. They play computer games together in them. They call them PC Bangs. They like computer games so much that they have computer game contests. They do match-making which is when another person figures out if a couple is fit to marry each other. I would not like a matchmaker to find me my wife because I would want to choose.

celadon pottery

great egret

samsung plaza, seoul, south korea

yoido full gospel church

korean parade

car making, hyundai motors

north korean army tunnel to south korea

korean tiger embroidery

money

me holding flag
(bathroom in background)

korean air

changdo palace

black winged stilt

whoopoe

little tern

smew duck

steller's sea eagle

black woodpecker

white stork

broad-billed ro?ller

daurian red start

manchurian crane

black tailed godwit

mallards in front, baikal teal in back

korean tiger embroidery

map

korean crane embroidery

economy

korean war memorial - washington d.c.

church steeple

North Korea