SEOUL: January 22nd has been a date of significant historical events in South Korea's past, ranging from political milestones to cultural developments.
According to Yonhap News Agency, on January 22, 1990, the Democratic Justice Party led by President Roh Tae-Woo and two conservative opposition parties, the Reunification Democratic Party headed by Kim Young-sam, and the New Democratic Republican Party represented by Kim Jong-pil, agreed to merge. This event marked the first instance in South Korea's constitutional history where the ruling party decided to merge with multiple opposition parties.
In 1992, an important diplomatic meeting occurred when Kim Yong-sun, a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and a key figure in the ruling Workers' Party, met Arnold Kanter, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, in New York. This meeting, focused on discussing North Korea's nuclear program, was the first high-level interaction between the two countries on this subject.
The year 2000 saw a major development in South Korean sports. On this day, over 75 players launched the Korea Professional Baseball Players Association (KPBPA), the country's first such organization aimed at defending the rights of professional baseball players. Approximately 390 players were expected to join the association, but team owners thwarted most of them from attending its first general assembly.
In 2011, South Korea mourned the loss of Park Wan-sue, a renowned novelist and essayist who explored the post-Korean War realities of everyday people. She passed away at the age of 80 due to gallbladder cancer.
A significant legal ruling occurred in 2015 when the Supreme Court confirmed a nine-year prison sentence for Lee Seok-ki. Affiliated with the now-dissolved minor far-left Unified Progressive Party, Lee was convicted for instigating an armed rebellion against the Seoul government in the event of an inter-Korean war.
In 2020, the South Korean Army made a controversial decision to discharge a noncommissioned officer who underwent sex reassignment surgery and wished to continue serving in the military as a woman. This case marked the first instance of a transgender soldier in the country facing such a challenge.