Today in Korean history

April 30

1946 -- The Military Language School, established by U.S. forces stationed in South Korea to teach English to local soldiers, closes after about five months of operation. The school in western Seoul was also aimed at providing instruction on American military methods to South Korea, which had regained sovereignty from Japanese colonial rule the previous year.

1951 -- The South Korean National Assembly passes a bill to disband the homeland defense forces, an emergency force of 500,000 men drafted to fight North Korean communists. The forces were sent home on May 12 following criticism that they lacked sufficient leadership and military resources to operate efficiently.

1957 -- A group of Koreans who were held in Tokyo prisons for over a decade due to war crimes during World War II are released. They had been drafted by the Japanese colonial regime, mostly in the 1940s, to fight for Japan.

1959 -- The Kyunghyang Shinmun, a Seoul-based daily newspaper, is forced to stop publishing due to its criticism of South Korea's regime.

1966 -- South Korea signs a cultural treaty with Mexico.

1978 -- The South Korean government announces a law that designates all areas within 12 nautical miles of the country's coast as South Korea's territorial waters.

1982 -- The United Nations acknowledges South Korea's territorial waters within 12 nautical miles of the coast and its fishing waters within 200 miles of the coast.

1989 -- The wife of the Joseon Dynasty's King Yeongchin, Lee Bang-ja, passes away. She was originally a member of the Japanese royal family.

1992 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic ties with Tanzania.

1994 -- A five-member family, led by the father Yeo Man-cheol, defects from North Korea to South Korea.

2003 -- In honor of the inauguration of President Roh Moo-hyun, the government releases a total of 1,424 prisoners who had been convicted of violating labor laws.

sojungpark@yna.co.kr
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