Today in Korean history

May 22

1882 -- Korea's Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and the United States reach a trade agreement.

1907 -- Lee Wan-yong, a politician and Japanese collaborator during the Joseon Dynasty, is appointed prime minister. The Euijeongbu, the dynasty's highest administrative body, is transformed into a Cabinet.

1963 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with Austria.

1974 -- The construction of a tidal embankment is completed at Asan Bay in South Chungcheong Province.

1984 -- Line 2 of the Seoul subway system opens.

1993 -- Hyun Jung-hwa, a South Korean table tennis player, wins the women's singles tournament at the 42nd World Table Tennis Championship.

2003 -- The Korean Government Employees Union, a public workers union, sticks to its previous plan to conduct a ballot on a strike.

2004 -- The South Korean movie "Old Boy" wins the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie, directed by Park Chan-wook, depicts an ordinary man trying to find an unknown person who kidnapped and confined him for 15 years.

2006 -- APTN, a television arm of the Associated Press, a major U.S. newswire, opens a bureau in Pyongyang, becoming the first western news outlet to establish a permanent presence in the capital of the communist nation.

2006 -- Lee Jong-wook, then director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), dies in Geneva, two days after he collapsed while on duty at his Geneva office. The South Korean head of WHO was later said to have died from overwork while preparing for the annual WHO assembly.

2013 -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sends a special envoy to China.

2014 -- North Korea fires two artillery shells near a South Korean warship on patrol in the western sea. The shells landed in waters 14 kilometers south of Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea. No casualties or property damages were reported.

2020 -- Prosecutors raid facilities of Shincheonji, a minor religious sect, as part of their probe into allegations that the members hindered state efforts to contain the new coronavirus in the early stages of the pandemic. The Shincheonji sect accounted for 47 percent of the country's total COVID-19 cases as of the day.
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