Today in Korean history

June 30

1882 -- Joseon signs a commerce treaty with Germany.

1983 -- State-run television station KBS broadcasts its first live program to help people find their family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The emotional show, initially planned as a one-off program, was extended until January the following year due to overwhelming demand and helped 10,189 people meet their long-lost relatives. More than 10 million people were separated during the war.

1989 -- South Korean student activist Lim Soo-kyong arrives in Pyongyang to participate in the World Festival of Youth and Students, a socialist youth congress, as a representative of South Korean university students. Lim received a tremendous welcome in North Korea but stirred up controversy in the South.

She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for the unauthorized visit.

2007 -- South Korea signs a free trade agreement with the United States. For South Korea, it is a pact with its second-biggest export market. For the U.S., it is the first FTA with an Asian country and the largest since the North American FTA (NAFTA) of 1994. The deal went into effect five years later.

2011 -- North Korea says it requested South Korean firms that have assets at a scenic mountain resort in the North to submit a proposal on property readjustment amid lingering tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

2015 -- Lim Ki-tack, president of the Busan Port Authority, was elected to head the International Maritime Organization, the U.N. maritime body that handles safety, security and environmental issues in the international shipping industry.

2015 -- Airbus beats Boeing in a bid to supply four aerial refueling tankers to South Korea.

2017 -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump begin their first summit in Washington, focusing on their bilateral alliance, trade and denuclearization of North Korea.

2017 -- The South Korea-led World Taekwondo Federation announces its demonstration team will perform for the first time in Pyongyang in September, during the opening ceremony of the world championships by the North Korea-led International Taekwondo Federation.

2019 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks bilaterally with U.S. President Donald Trump at Panmunjom. They also hold a brief trilateral gathering involving South Korean President Moon Jae-in there.
(END)