Today in Korean history

Sept. 8

1966 -- South Korea and Japan hold their first Cabinet meeting in Seoul, a year after they normalized diplomatic relations. Seoul had refused to establish relations with Japan after it regained sovereignty from its former colonial occupier in 1945.

1984 -- The Red Cross of North Korea suggests to its South Korean counterpart that the former provide aid for victims of floods that had caused widespread damage in the South. The relief aid was delivered through the truce village of Panmunjom and the western port of Incheon on Sept. 29.

1989 -- The National Intelligence Service releases the results of its investigation of Lim Soo-kyong, a student activist who made an illegal visit to Pyongyang in June. Lim became the first South Korean student to visit Pyongyang, where she participated in the World Youth and Student Festival, a socialist youth gathering, as a delegate of radical South Korean university students. She received a tremendous welcome from North Korea but stirred controversy in the South. The South Korean government gave her a 3 1/2-year jail term.

2002 -- The Red Cross of South and North Korea agree to jointly set up a venue at the North's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang for reunions of families separated since the Korean War.

2010 -- South Korea announced it would penalize a key Iranian bank and put all financial transactions with Iran under government supervision as it announced a package of sanctions to join a U.S.-led campaign to censure Tehran over its suspected nuclear program.

2015 -- Japan's highest court rules that South Korean atomic bomb victims residing in their homeland are entitled to full compensation from local authorities in Japan. The court upheld a ruling by lower courts, putting an end to a four-year lawsuit against the Osaka prefectural government by Lee Hong-hyun and the surviving family members of two other Korean victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.
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