Aug. 17
1901 — Hansung Electric Co. holds a ceremony to mark the first time that electric lights are turned on in Seoul.
1962 — Prime Minister Jang Myun is arrested without physical detention on anti-revolutionary conspiracy charges.
1964 — South Korea establishes an association of its journalists.
1992 — South Korea opens a liaison office in Hanoi, about four months before the country reestablished its diplomatic ties with Vietnam. South Korea and Vietnam first established their diplomatic relationship in 1956, but the relationship was severed in 1975, when Ho Chi Minh City, then Saigon and the capital of South Vietnam, was captured by the People’s Army of Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War.
2001 — Bang Sang-hoon, president of the daily Chosun Ilbo; Kim Byung-kwan, former honorary chairman of the daily Dong-A Ilbo; and Cho Hee-jun, former chairman of the Kukmin Daily, are arrested on tax evasion charges after a special tax probe into the news organizations. Conservative forces claimed the probe conducted under the Kim Dae-jung administration was a plot to tame news media critical of the government.
2016 — The Seoul government announces the defection of Thae Yong-ho, a minister at North Korea’s embassy in London, who was one of the highest-ranking North Korean diplomats to have defected to the South. The government confirmation reportedly came several days after Thae arrived in Seoul.
2019 — North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency says it tested a “new weapon” under the guidance of leader Kim Jong-un the previous day with the goal of building defense capabilities. The state media did not provide other details, but experts said the North appeared to have test-launched its version of the U.S.’ Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
2021 — President Moon Jae-in and his Kazakh counterpart, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, agree to broaden bilateral partnerships in new industries, including those related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, public health and space exploration, during their summit talks in Seoul.
Source: Yonhap News Agency