Aug. 19
1964 -- South Korea joins the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of the parliaments of sovereign states.
1980 -- The Chun Doo-hwan administration forces 617 publishing companies to close by canceling their registrations with the culture ministry. The general-turned-president had earlier announced a policy to remove or merge some media organizations to "make society cleaner," a pretext to restrict the freedom of the press.
1993 -- The National Assembly passes a bill on the implementation of a real-name financial transaction system, an election pledge of President Kim Young-sam. The system, aimed at fighting corruption and ensuring more financial transparency, required all bank accounts to be registered under the name of the actual account holder.
1997 -- The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, an international consortium overseeing the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, starts operations.
2000 -- North Korea's national orchestra holds its first performance in Seoul.
2003 -- Chon Hyo-suk is nominated to the nine-member Constitutional Court. In September, Chon became the first woman to take a post on the bench.
2009 -- North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il sends condolences on the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who died of complications from pneumonia on Aug. 18.
2013 -- Lockheed Martin vows to continue to work with the U.S. government to offer F-35s to South Korea.
2014 -- North Korea joins a Russian arms exhibition in an apparent sign of Pyongyang's continuing interest in trading arms despite U.N. sanctions.
Source: Yonhap News Agency