Today in Korean history

Aug. 2

1953 -- The U.S. military command moves its headquarters to Yongsan in central Seoul.

1980 -- Color television sets become available for the first time in South Korea.

1993 -- Chang Kang-je, the publisher and owner of the Hankook Ilbo-Korea Times group, dies after a long illness. He was 48.

2010 -- The Guinness World Records certifies South Korea's Saemangeum dike as the longest man-made sea barrier in the world, according to the South Korean government. The world's leading authority on record-breaking achievements officially confirmed that the 33.9-kilometer-long seawall is 1.4 km longer than the dike at the Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands.

2011 -- Seoul demands Tokyo correct its defense document that lays claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo. Japan's defense white paper has referred to the islets in the East Sea as Japanese territory since 2005.

2019 -- South Korea and Japan decide to delist each other as trusted trading partners after Tokyo's rejection of Seoul's repeated appeals for a negotiated resolution over the issue of forced labor compensation. The move further worsened their row over trade and wartime history.
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