Today in Korean history

July 30

1953 -- The U.S. Senate passes a bill to spend US$200 million to rehabilitate
war-ravaged South Korea. The Korean War, which began in June 1950 with a North
Korean invasion of the South, ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, three
days earlier.

1953 -- Yok Do-san, a North Korea-born wrestler who later became a Japanese idol
for his power and skills, establishes the Japan Wrestling Association. Yok,
better known in Japan as Rikidozan, knocked down opponents with his trademark
karate chop in the ring. He emerged as a national hero in the 1950s and early
1960s, helping to restore Japan's pride and self-esteem after its defeat in World
War II.

1971 -- The government designates a greenbelt, an area of land protected from
development, outside Seoul for the first time.

2000 -- South and North Korea hold their first ministerial meeting in Seoul. They
agreed to have inter-Korean ministerial meetings on a regular basis, reopen
liaison offices in the border village of Panmunjom and establish a reconciliation
week in honor of August 15th, the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese
colonial rule in 1945.

2002 -- South Korean golfer Gloria Park wins the LPGA's Big Apple Classic in New
York, with compatriot Han Hee-won finishing in second place.

2006 -- Dozens of crewmen aboard a South Korean tuna crawler are released after
nearly four months of captivity in Somalia. The 360-ton ship, owned by Dongwon
Fisheries Co. and manned by eight Koreans and 17 others from Indonesia, China and
Vietnam, was abducted in April by a group of Somali bandits in waters off the
East African country.
(END)