Today in Korean history

June 17

1902 -- The missions of Germany, France and Russia hold secret talks in the
Russian residence in Seoul seeking ways to gain operating rights to Korean
railways and mines. Western countries, as well as China and Japan, competed to
reap profits from Korea. The country lost its sovereignty to imperial Japan in
1910 and was liberated 35 years later.

1904 -- The first group of Koreans to immigrate to Hawaii sets sail from the
western port of Incheon. The 120 emigrants left their colonized homeland for a
better life on the U.S. island, where they would work mainly on sugar cane
plantations. It was not until the 1950s that Koreans began to spread across the
United States. There are now more than a million ethnic Koreans in that country.

1944 -- Imperial Japan enforces a rice collection order on Korean farmers across
the country, forcing them to send their produce to Japan, which was spending
extensively on its military during World War II. Brass household objects, such as
spoons, chopsticks and kitchen knives, were also collected to make weapons. The
excessive exploitation caused many Korean farmers to leave their homes for
northeastern China or any place they could feed their families.

1992 -- South and North Korea agree to standardize their romanization system for
the Korean alphabet.

1994 -- North Korean leader Kim Il-sung holds talks with former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter in Pyongyang and agrees to meet his South Korean counterpart. Kim,
however, died the following month. An inter-Korean summit did not take place
until June 15, 2000, when his son and successor Kim Jong-il met then President
Kim Dae-jung of South Korea.

1995 -- South Korea and North Korea hold a meeting of vice ministers in Beijing
to discuss rice aid from the South to the North. Seoul has been the biggest
provider of food and energy to Pyongyang.

2005 -- South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young meets with North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Chung visited the North Korean capital as
head of a South Korean delegation for inter-Korean events marking the fifth
anniversary of the inter-Korean summit held in June 2000.
(END)