Today in Korean history

Jan. 23

1981 -- South Korea's military government reduces opposition leader Kim Dae-jung's death sentence to life in prison. Kim was sentenced to death the previous year for allegedly instigating an insurgency in the southwestern city of Gwangju that year.

1996 -- Hyun Sung-il, an official at the North Korean Embassy in Zambia, defects to South Korea.

1997 -- South Korean conglomerate Hanbo Group declares bankruptcy due to mounting debt.

2001 -- North Korea establishes diplomatic relations with Belgium.

2003 -- Shinhan Financial Group is chosen as the preferred bidder for Chohung Bank.

2007 -- Top nuclear envoys of the two Koreas hold talks in Beijing and agree to reopen the six-nation negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear ambition.

2019 -- South Korea's military strongly condemns a Japanese warplane's low-altitude flight close to a South Korean warship, calling it a "provocative act." Earlier in the day, a Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3 patrol plane flew close to South Korea's 4,500-ton destroyer Daejoyeong at an altitude of 60 to 70 meters just 540 meters away in international waters near Ieodo, a submerged rock south of Korea's southern island of Jeju.
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