Some 700,000 years ago, hominids took their first steps on the fertile land of Korea. They were hunters, gatherers, and fishers, as proven by the ancient stone tools found across the peninsula. They lived in caves heated by fire, where they cooked their food and made their lives for hundreds of thousands of years until c. 8,000 BCE. This period in Korea's history is referred to as the Palaeolithic period.
The History of Korean Dynasties extends as far back as 2,333 BC, when legend has it that the Gojoseon Dynasty was founded by Dangun Wanggeom, considered the founder of Korea. According to Myth, the Lord of Heaven's son and father of Dangun, Hwanung, longed to live on earth among the people and descended at the famous site of Baekdu Mountain (Tian Chi in Chinese).
On 25th June 1950, the North Korean army crossed the 38th degree of latitude, which, after the end of WWII and the Japanese occupation, was chosen as a borderline separating the Soviet from the American sphere of influence. This invasion into the South, which was controlled by the USA, was condemned by the UN Security Council on the same day and interpreted as a violation of peace. This happened in absence of the Soviet Union.
The People's Republic of China regarded America as acting as an imperialistic aggressor who not only interfered in inter-Korean affairs without any justification, but who also interfered in inter-Chinese affairs. In particular, it was America's support for Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang in Taiwan that drew PRC criticism. Chiang Kai-shek was able to repeatedly repel invasions led by the Chinese People's Liberation Army with the aid of American weapons.
A gush of wind on the land of the morning calm, that’s how one can describe the “Forgotten War†that has a continuing significance on this nation’s history. This gush of wind will disappear in the vacuums of space, as a young astronaut from South Korea who is about to be sent into orbit has announced that he would take the soil from each side of the DMZ and mix them together while in orbit around the earth.