South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea or ROK (Korean: Namhan; Daehan Min-guk[1]),[2] is a constitutional republic comprising the southern part of Korea, which protrudes southward from the Northeastern Asian mainland and lies between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Its East Asian neighbors include China, Taiwan, and Japan, which share strong historical and cultural ties with Korea. When South Korea was established in 1948 after the end of Japanese colonial rule, it was one of the poorest in the world, and its economic situation worsened with losses of the country's infrastructure during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. However, during the the early 1960s and the two decades that followed, South Korea transformed its largely agricultural economy into a modern industrial power and currently maintains the 13th largest GDP. Seoul, the capital of South Korea and also the world's second largest city, serves as a major technological and financial hub for the country and the region.
Footnotes
- ↑ i.e. 'Great Nation of the People of Korea'
- ↑ According to the revised romanization of Korean.