Today in Korean history

June 10

1917 -- Korean independence fighters based in Hawaii, led by Park Yong-man, establish a military band named the Great Joseon People's Army.

1926 -- Residents of Seoul stage street marches against the Japanese colonial regime to coincide with the state funeral of Sunjong, the last emperor of the Joseon Dynasty.

1952 -- The United Nations Command, established to support South Korea against North Korea in the civil war that started in 1950, puts down a revolt by prisoners of war at a jail on Geoje Island, off South Korea's southeastern coast. The jail accommodated about 150,000 North Korean soldiers and 30,000 Chinese. The prisoners were set free in 1953, when the Korean War ended with an armistice.

1962 -- The government implements its second currency reform, converting the basic monetary unit to the "won" from the "hwan" and devaluing it 10 to 1.

1987 -- Students take to the streets in a massive pro-democracy movement against the then military-backed government of Chun Doo-hwan. The rally was triggered by the government's crackdown for years on people's call for democracy and public fury over the torture death of student protester Park Jong-chul.

1988 -- Pohang Iron and Steel, now POSCO, is listed on the Korea Stock Exchange.

1989 -- The Ministry of Construction announces 22 districts of a total 24 million square meters for residential development.

1993 -- North Korea test-fires a missile with a 1,000-km range in the East Sea.

2010 -- The Naro-1, South Korea's first locally assembled space rocket carrying a scientific satellite, explodes about two minutes into flight.

2016 -- South Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC) send troops to crack down on illegal Chinese fishing boats in neutral waters around the mouth of the Han River between the two Koreas. The military operation marked the first of its kind to take place in the estuary region, where the Han River meets the Yellow Sea, after its designation as a no man's land in the Armistice Agreement following the 1950-53 Korean War.

2018 -- U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrive in Singapore for their historic summit over Pyongyang's denuclearization.

2019 -- Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, dies at the age of 96, after battling liver cancer. Lee served as chair of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, which was founded by her husband to promote inter-Korean reconciliation and world peace, and fight global poverty.
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