Today in Korean history

Jan. 24

1963 -- South Korea and North Korea hold their first meeting in Switzerland as part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to form a joint team for the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

1972 -- South Korea publishes its first Trade White Paper.

1997 -- The 18th Winter Universiade kicks off in Muju and Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. It was South Korea's first time hosting the multi-sport event for university athletes.

2000 -- A coalition of local civic organizations issues a list of candidates running in an upcoming parliamentary election and urges citizens not to vote for them.

2003 -- Seoul and Pyongyang pledge to cooperate with each other in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully at ministerial talks held in South Korea.

2008 -- A Korean-born Canadian aid worker is jailed in North Korea for nearly three months on charges related to national security.

2011 -- The number of foreigners naturalized as Koreans surpasses the landmark 100,000, 63 years after the establishment of the South Korean government in 1948.

2012 -- South Korea signs a bilateral agreement with Bermuda on the exchange of tax information.

2013 -- Lee Sang-deuk, the elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak, is sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 750 million won for receiving a massive amount of bribes.

2018 -- Tennis player Chung Hyeon reaches the semifinals at the Australian Open, becoming the first South Korean to play in the final four at a Grand Slam event.

2019 -- Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae is arrested on charges that he abused his authority to influence trials as a political tool to lobby the previous government. It was the first time that the head of the judiciary was arrested in South Korea's constitutional history.
(END)