1995 — South Korea establishes diplomatic ties with Laos.

1996 — The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development admits South Korea as its 29th member.

2002 — North Korea officially rejects a U.S. demand for the dismantlement of its nuclear program and instead demands that a non-aggression treaty be signed between it and the United States.

2004 — South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun says he will no longer dispute the Constitutional Court’s ruling against the relocation of the country’s administrative capital outside of Seoul, pledging to continuously pursue balanced regional development through other projects.

2010 — North Korea’s heir apparent joins his father, Kim Jong-il, and a visiting top Chinese general in Pyongyang to watch a mass rally lauding the decades-old military alliance between the two countries.

2013 — North Korea hands over six South Korean men and the body of a South Korean female at the border village of Panmunjom. The North’s media had reported in February 2010 that it was questioning four South Koreans who entered the country illegally, while there was a separate report that one man entered the North a month earlier by crossing the Tumen River from China’s Yanbian region.

2015 — Hundreds of South Koreans hold tearful reunions with their family members in North Korea amid tensions sparked by the intrusion of a North Korean patrol boat over the demarcation line in the Yellow Sea. The 254 South Koreans, from 90 families, met their North Korean relatives on the second day of the three-day reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War at a scenic resort on Mount Kumgang in North Korea.

2018 — South and North Korea wrap up the process of disarming the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone by completing the work of withdrawing military posts, armed troops and firearms from the area. The measures were in line with the inter-Korean military agreement signed on Sept. 19 aimed at reducing tensions and building mutual trust.

2020 — Lee Kun-hee, chief of South Korea’s top conglomerate, Samsung Group, dies at age 78. He had been bedridden since May 2014 following a heart attack.

Source: Yonhap News Agency