Short answers, pulled from the story.
South Korea is officially the Republic of Korea, a country in East Asia. It occupies the southern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and the Sea of Japan to the east.
The Korean War began on the 25th of June 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea. It ended in 1953 with an armistice, never signed by South Korea, that split the peninsula along the demilitarized zone. No peace treaty was ever signed, so the two countries remain technically at war.
The name Korea is an exonym derived from the kingdom name Goryeo, which Goguryeo officially adopted as a shortened form in the 5th century. Visiting Arab and Persian merchants pronounced it as "Korea", and the modern name appears in the first Portuguese maps of 1568 by Joao vaz Dourado as Conrai.
The Miracle on the Han River is the name South Koreans give to their period of rapid economic growth. South Korea recorded the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1980 and 1990, emerging as one of the Four Asian Tigers alongside Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
South Korea endured dictatorships punctuated by coups and uprisings until the June Democratic Struggle of 1987 ended authoritarian rule. That struggle was ignited after the Seoul National University student Park Jong-chul was tortured to death, and it led to the June 29 Declaration promising a democratic presidential election and the current Sixth Republic.
Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on the 3rd of December 2024, accusing the opposition of pro-North Korean activities. The National Assembly nullified it in a unanimous 190-0 vote, Yoon ended it early on December 4, and he was impeached on the 14th of December 2024, then removed from office on the 4th of April 2025.
According to Korea's founding mythology, the history of Korea begins with the founding of Joseon, also known as Gojoseon, in 2333 BC by the legendary Dangun. Gojoseon was later noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BC.