57% of Koreans in their 20s are ignorant about the Korean War

According to a recent poll of Koreans in their 20s, 56.6% didn’t know when the Korean War started.

“This is a very serious problem that more and more people, especially youngsters, are not well aware of or not interested in the Korean War, where millions of South Koreans were killed,” an official of the Ministry of National Defense said. “Pan-governmental efforts are required to make people understand properly about the Korean War and, in particular, educate youngsters about the war and history.”

The official referred to a survey last year, suggesting that more than 35 percent of elementary school students misunderstood that the Korean War had broken out following the South’s invasion into the North.

In related news, another poll hinted that 79% of Koreans know only five or fewer of the sixteen countries that fought alongside South Korea during the Korean War. Five percent of respondents didn’t know any of the countries or were not interested, and of that five percent, 82% were 20 years old or younger.

New 50,000-won note to debut in June, small face and all

The Korea Times and Chosun Ilbo report that the new 50,000-won note is set to debut by the end of June.
It will feature Shin Saim-dang, a noted writer, calligrapher, and mother of Yulgok, a Yangban (Korean aristocrat) scholar of the Chosun dynasty. (He’s the guy on the 5,000-won note.)
She died over 450 years ago, and yet, like many Korean women, she has benefited from modern Korean plastic surgery technology, and will appear with a stylishly smaller face.

Interesting article about Jongno

The Joongang Daily has an interesting piece about Jongno* and its history, with several accompanying black-and-white photographs from the old days. Check it out.

* In case you don’t know, Jongno is a major street in Seoul, and has been important for a long time.