Today in Korean history

March 14

1902 -- A groundbreaking ceremony is held in Mapo, central Seoul, to mark the beginning of construction on the Gyeongui railway linking Sinuiju, a city on the Korean Peninsula's border with China, and Busan, a southeastern port city.

1940 -- A cruise ship capsizes in the sea off Tongyeong, a city in South Gyeongsang Province.

1951 -- The South Korean Army and United Nations forces retake Seoul after it was occupied by the North Korean People's Army during the Korean War.

1973 -- The second meeting of the inter-Korean Coordinating Committee is held in Pyongyang. The committee was organized to implement the inter-Korean joint communique of July 4, 1972, in which the two sides agreed to achieve the peaceful reunification of the peninsula.

1991 -- The Nakdong River is contaminated by phenol, which leaked from an electronics company in Gumi, a city in North Gyeongsang Province.

2002 -- A group of 25 North Korean refugees rush into the Spanish Embassy in Beijing to seek asylum in South Korea.

2014 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his Cabinet has no plan to revise the Kono Statement, a landmark apology over Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.
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