Korean History: From 1876 Onwards Quiz

Answer: Kanghwa

Kanghwa is an island near Inchon. Having been treated to a strong dose of gunboat diplomacy by Commodore Perry a quarter century earlier, Japan now turned around and applied the same treatment to Korea by imposing a classic "unequal treaty" at gunpoint.

Answer: a Japanese-backed reformer

Kim and other reformers attempted a coup d'etat in 1884, assassinating several conservative ministers and seizing the king. Their action was thwarted by Chinese troops who rescued the king after clashing with Japanese legation guards. Kim fled to exile in Japan, and was later killed by a fellow Korean during a visit to China in 1894.

Answer: Sunjong

King Sunjong, also known as the Emperor Yunghui, lived from 1874 to 1926. He took the throne when the Japanese forced his father, King Kojong, to abdicate in 1907, and he was himself deposed by the Japanese when they annexed Korea in 1910.

Answer: True

This policy, implemented during 1940, provides the title for Richard Kim's semi-autobiographical novel, "Lost Names." Before this time, in an effort to destroy the Korean identity and convert Koreans into second-class Japanese, the colonial authorities had already stopped publication of books in Korean as well as the use of the Korean language in schools.

The name-change policy was actually opposed by many Japanese residents of Korea because they felt it reduced the social distance between themselves and the locals.

Answer: Austria

The formidable Francesca Donner was born in Inzersdorf, Austria (now part of Vienna) in 1900. She and Rhee were married in New York in 1934, the second marriage for both of them. Historian Allan Millett credits her with persuading her despairing husband to leave Seoul during the North Korean offensive of June 1950, rather than staying to face capture or death.

Answer: Juche

Juche is flavored with very strong ethnocentrism and traditional familial values enlisted in the service of the state. It's also very hard to define. Korea expert Bruce Cumings has this to say: "The more one seeks to understand Juche, the more the meaning recedes.

It is a state of mind, not an idea, and one that is unavailable to the non-North Korean. It is the opaque core of what one could call North Korean national solipsism." (Cumings, "The Two Koreas," p. 56).

Answer: His own spy chief

Park and his bodyguard were dining with Kim Chae-gyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, at a KCIA safe house in Seoul. An altercation broke out, and Kim shot and killed Park after putting his first bullet into the bodyguard.

Answer: Kim Young-sam

All four served as president of the ROK. Chun was a military man who cracked down hard after Park's assassination. Roh, a transitional figure, had also been a general and was Chun's hand-picked successor. Kim Young-sam took office in 1993, and was succeeded by Kim Dae-jung in 1998.

Answer: Kyongsang

Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan both hailed from the Kyongsang provinces of southeastern South Korea, as did Chun's successor Roh Tae-woo. The Cholla provinces in the southwest were relatively disadvantaged, politically and economically, during the era of military rule.

Answer: 30%

In 2007, there were 13.7 million Christians in the ROK, or 29.2% of the population (breaking down to 18.3% Protestant and 10.9% Catholic). Christianity has taken deep root in Korea since the late 19th century, in part as an antidote to Japanese imperialism, and continues to grow in popularity.

Historian Allan Millett has characterized the conflict between the ROK and the DPRK as a struggle between Christianity and Communism for the soul of Korea.