Korea was first created by the Dang-gun Grandfather. At least, that's what Korea's olden myths say. The myth was this: Long ago, there lived tigers, bears, and gods. It was said that if an animal ate nothing but onions and garlic for 10 years, it could become a woman. Now there was a god up in heaven, and he had one son and desperately wanted a suitable wife for him. There was one bear and one tiger that were very good friends. They decided to become women. They tried eating nothing but onions and garlic, but after only two months the tiger gave up, while the bear persevered and finally became a woman. It married the god's son and thier son was named Dang-gun. There were different periods of time in Korea. There was Go-jo-sun, the very first time period: old cave men making a living. Then there were 3 areas of land in Korea. Silla, Bak-jae, and Go-gu-rwa. They all combined into Silla after a big war. After Silla were several others and then the Jo-sun period. This was a time for several wars. First Japan decided to invade Korea to keep it for themselves, but after hard fighting the Japanese failed. This was when Korea split into two seperate places, South and North Korea. This was kind of like a depression time for Korea since there was a long and suffering war. Everybody had hard times, and finally after millions of young men joined the army and served thier duty, they split up. What was the war caused about? The South wanted democracy, and the North wanted to form communism. Finally, exhausted and pretty sure that Korea would perish forever, they signed an agreement to rest before going back to war and split up. Many people lost thier native homes and beloved family members, and now thier is a huge fence with army officers and watchdogs lined up against the sad-looking roll of barbed wire.





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