Today in Korean history

Dec. 12

1948 -- The U.N. General Assembly recognizes the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea, as the legal government of Korea.

1979 -- Army Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan stages a coup against President Choi Kyu-ha, ordering the arrest of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Jeong Seung-hwa and alleging his involvement in the assassination of President Park Chung-hee.

1995 -- The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, an international consortium overseeing the provision and construction of light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, reaches an agreement with Pyongyang on the terms of the project.

2007 -- A South Korean sailor taken hostage nearly two months previous is released along with 21 other crew members of a Japanese ship that was seized in waters off Somalia.

2008 -- South Korea reaches new currency swap agreements with China and Japan in an effort to stabilize the foreign exchange market in case of an emergency.

2011 -- One South Korean Coast Guard commando is killed and another injured in stabbings by Chinese sailors caught fishing illegally in the Yellow Sea off Incheon, west of Seoul.

2012 -- North Korea announces a long-range rocket launch is a success, claiming that a scientific satellite has been put in the Earth's orbit as planned.

2013 -- South Korea's spy agency announces a set of self-reform measures to address opposition demands for a scale-back in its controversial domestic operations that have caused acute political tension between rival parties. The measures, reported to parliament, call for the National Intelligence Service to stop sending agents to monitor the day-to-day activities of the National Assembly, political parties and news organizations, a practice that critics have denounced as unwarranted.

2014 -- Former Korean Air Lines Co. Vice President Cho Hyun-ah, who forced a crew member to leave a plane over an alleged breach of snack-serving protocol, apologizes over the so-called "nut rage" incident ahead of a transport ministry questioning.

2016 -- Chung Jin-suk, the floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, resigns to take responsibility for the passage of the impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye for influence peddling three days earlier.

2018 -- South and North Korea complete a daylong process to verify their recent work to withdraw some guard posts from the Demilitarized Zone. The pullout is part of a broader accord aimed at reducing military tensions, preventing accidental clashes and building trust.

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