Today in Korean history

April 17

1880 -- Japan sets up a legation in Korea.

1968 -- South Korean President Park Chung-hee holds talks with his U.S. counterpart, Lyndon Johnson.

1976 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with Bahrain.

2003 -- South Korea sends 20 soldiers to Iraq in its first deployment to the war-torn country.

2012 -- The United Nations Security Council adopts a presidential statement, condemning North Korea for the launch of a long-range missile only three days earlier. UNSC resolutions 1718 and 1874, which were passed after two North Korean nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, ban the country from launching any ballistic missile.

2014 -- The South Korean military begins a project to excavate remains of fallen soldiers who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War.

President Park Geun-hye visits the site where a ferry sank off South Korea's southern coast on April 16, 2014. The 6,325-ton Sewol was carrying 475 people, mostly students from a high school near Seoul.
(END)