Today in Korean history

Feb. 28

1948 -- Kim Koo, a Korean independence fighter and politician, publicly opposes the U.N.'s proposal to hold a separate general election in southern Korea. Kim said the election would lead to the division of the Korean Peninsula and that the communist-controlled northern Korea and the U.N.-supervised southern Korea should set up a common government.

1987 -- South Korea starts building the Pyeonghwa Dam in Gangwon Province. Government officials led by then Construction Minister Lee Kyu-hyo said South Korea needed the dam to counter North Korea's Geumgang Dam, which held enough water to flood the South. South Koreans donated 73.3 billion won (US$62 million) to build the dam.

2000 -- The World Bank, an international lending organization that bailed South Korea out in the financial crisis in the late 1990s, announces it will halt aid programs to Seoul as South Korea's financial situation had improved.

2002 -- Ruling and opposition lawmakers release the names of 708 people who allegedly collaborated with Japan when Korea was under its colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.

2004 -- The second round of six-way talks on denuclearizing North Korea ends in Beijing, with negotiators only reaching an agreement on the next meeting and a preparatory working group.

2010 -- South Korea pledges to offer relief aid to Chile after the South American country was struck by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake a day earlier, while South Korean residents there have all been confirmed safe.

2012 -- The Cabinet approves the National Assembly's decision to increase the number of parliamentary seats from 299 to 300 in the new parliament. It marks the first time the number of parliamentary seats has reached the 300 mark.

2017 -- President Park Geun-hye is named a bribery suspect as special prosecutors wrap up their three-month probe into a massive influence-peddling scandal.

2019 -- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hold their second summit in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28 following their first meeting in Singapore in June 2018. But the talks ended without agreement due to gaps over the scope of Pyongyang's denuclearization and Washington's concession.
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