Pusan
(2002 pop. 4.1 million). Located at the southeastern corner of the Korean Peninsula, Pusan is the second-largest city in South Korea (after Seoul) and is South Korea's major international seaport. Like Seoul, it is a "special" (partly autonomous) city.
Due to its location and its deep harbor, Pusan has long been the main port of trade between Japan and Korea and has been a focal point of Korean-Japanese tensions. Pusan was opened to Japanese merchants in 1443 when King T'aejong (1397–1450) confirmed a trade treaty with Japan. In the sixteenth century, the Japanese established a small enclave in Pusan. In 1592 and again in 1596, Admiral Hideyoshi (1537–1598) used Pusan as the embarking point for the Japanese invasion of the Korean Peninsula. In 1876, Pusan was a point of conflict between Japan and Korea when Japanese marines battled with local Korean troops.
Pusan was officially opened to foreigners as a treaty port under the Kanghwa Treaty of 1883, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Japan had begun to build a railway to link Seoul with Pusan. During the Korean War, Pusan gained fame as where American and South Korean troops held the "Pusan Perimeter," a line 80 kilometers wide and 160 kilometers deep on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula against the advancing North Korean Army. Today, Pusan is a leading industrial and manufacturing center and is best known for its ironworks, railway yards, and shipping industries. For three decades it enjoyed a reputation as a boomtown, which attracted many wealthy and educated young people. The economic downturn of the late 1990s slowed but did not halt the city's growth.
Further Reading
Eckert, Carter. (1990) Korea Old and New: A History. Seoul: Ilchokak Publishers.
Pusan History Compilation Committee. (1993) The History and Culture of Pusan. Pusan, South Korea: City of Pusan.
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