Today in Korean history

May 28

1905 -- A railroad linking the capital city of Seoul with the port city of Busan in the southeastern part of the country opens to passengers and cargo.

1973 -- The government announces a new law that outlines the timing and extent of legally permissible abortions.

1984 -- The International Olympic Committee gives formal consent to Seoul to host the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.

1985 -- Red Cross meetings between South and North Korea resume following a 12-year hiatus.

1989 -- The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), a progressive teachers' union, is founded despite government opposition on the grounds that it allowed fired teachers to join the group in violation of the law.

1999 -- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung holds a summit meeting with his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, in Moscow.

2003 -- A former presidential aide implicated in the unlawful sending of funds to North Korea is arrested by authorities.

2005 -- South Korea completes the overland shipment of 200,000 metric tons of emergency fertilizer aid to North Korea. The shipment is part of an assistance package agreed to by Seoul at high-level inter-Korean talks.

2018 -- K-pop group BTS becomes the first Korean act to top the Billboard 200 albums chart with "Love Yourself: Tear." The BTS album, released on May 18, launched with 135,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States during the week ending May 24, the Billboard magazine said. It's also the first No. 1 for a world music genre album ever and the first in over 12 years for a primarily non-English album.
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