Today in Korean history

July 23

1961 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with the Ivory Coast.

1984 -- The government publishes its first official gazette. It remains unknown why the publication was delayed for several decades. The South Korean government was established in 1948, three years after the Korean Peninsula regained its sovereignty from Japan's colonial rule.

2005 -- Song Min-soon, South Korea's chief negotiator on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, departs for Beijing to attend a fourth round of disarmament talks. The six-nation talks -- also involving North Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- resumed on July 26 after a 13-month hiatus due to a North Korean boycott.

2009 -- South Korea's antitrust watchdog slaps Qualcomm Inc. with a record 260 billion-won (US$208 million) fine for violating the nation's fair competition rules by abusing its market monopoly. The fine is the largest ever levied by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on a single company.

2014 -- South Korea and China agree to set up a hotline between their defense ministers. South Korea and China, which set up telephone hotlines between their navies and air forces in 2008, have been discussing ways to establish the defense chiefs' hotline for years. China is the second country to have such a high-level military hotline with South Korea after the United States.
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