KAdoptee.or.kr - User contributions [en]

About Korea

2021-03-19T04:29:56Z

John:

=== General Information ===

__TOC__

==== Official Name of the Country ====
Official Name: Republic of Korea<br>
Common name: South Korea

==== Location, Area ====
Korea is located in the northeastern peninsula in Asia. The area of its territory is 100,188.1 km<sup>2</sup>. The Korean Peninsula is adjacent to China with its boundary along the Yalu River to its northwestern side, and shares its boundary with China and Russia along the Tumen River to its northeastern side. Surrounded by the sea in three sides, Korea's western coast is called the West Sea, eastern coast is called the East Sea and the southern coast is called the Southern Sea.

Korea's southern and western regions are mainly flatland while eastern and northern regions are mountainous. The Tae Baek Mountains is located along the Korean Peninsula's eastern coast and is also called the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range. Korea's representative islands are Jeju-do, Geoje-do, Jin-do and Ulleung-do. Jeju and Ulleung Islands are formed through volcano activities. Korea's Yellow Sea coast and southern coast are rias coast, and the tidal difference is big. (Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

==== Population ====
The total population of Korea is 51,635,256 (as of November 2018) and 9,784,112 reside in Seoul. The population density is 509/km<sup>2</sup> (as of November 1, 2015) and is the world's top 2 among countries that have a population of over 10 million. (Source: Ministry of the Government Administration and Home Affairs, CIA, Statistics Korea)

==== Flag (Taegeukgi) ====
Taegeukgi is composed of a taegeuk (blue/red) and four trigram of divination (gun: sky; gon: earth; gam: water; lee: fire). It was selected as the national flag during the emperor Gojong 20 years (1883). The red area in the Taegeuk pattern represents nobility and yang (positive) and the blue area represents hope and yin (negative principle in nature). Being located in each corner, gun, gon, gam and lee, symbolized sky, earth, water and fire; and achieve harmony with Taegeuk in the center.

==== National Flower (Mugunghwa) ====
The national flower of Korea is called the Mugunghwa, also known as the Rose of Sharon in western countries. The Mugunghwa is distributed all over Korea and it blooms from July to October. Once it blooms, it lasts at least for 100 days. Mugunghwa means 'blooming eternally!'

==== Currency ====
The currency unit of Korea is Won (₩) and issued in 6 kinds of coins and 4 types of bills.

==== Economy ====
As of 2017, Korea's GDP stood at 1.53 trillion U.S. dollars, and was the world's top 12 economy. Per capital GDP was 38,355 dollar (as of 2018). Its major exports commodities are petroleum products, automobiles, vessels and flat panel display (Source: IMF, Korea Customs Service).

==== Local Administrative System ====
Korea is divided into 17 municipal autonomous regions and 226 basic local governments. The municipal autonomous regions consist of 1 metropolitan city, 6 megalopolis, 1 special self-governing province. The basic local governments consist of 75 autonomous cities, 82 autonomous counties, 69 autonomous districts and there are a total of 3,503 eup, myeon and dong which are the sub-administrative districts of each basic local region (as of April 2018). Korea has a local self-governing system in operation and the local residents participate in the election every 4 years to elect head of the local autonomous region (Metropolitan: Mayor, Governor; Basic: Mayor, County Governor, District Governor) and district assemblymen and superintendents.

=== Weather ===
The Republic of Korea belongs to the warm temperature zone in the middle of latitude and has a very clear 4 seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter).

==== Spring: March to May ====
(Average temperature: 5.1~16.4 °C) The weather is clear and dry, there is a yellow dust from the desert of China and Mongolia in Spring.

==== Summer: June to August ====
(Average temperature: 20.9~25.2 °C) The weather is hot and humid. It comes to the intensive rainy or typhoons in Summer.

==== Autumn: September to November ====
(Average temperature: 7.6~21.1 °C) The weather is clear and cool. The sky is clear and the grain is ripe, also the leaves of the trees turn red or yellow in Autumn.

==== Winter: December to February ====
(Average temperature -2.1~0.9 °C) The weather is cold and dry by the effect of northwesterly wind, which is severe cold. There is a lot of snow in Winter.

=== Holidays, Public Holidays ===
There are New Year's Day and Chuseok as representing Korean holiday and Koreans have both Sinjeong (January 1 on Solar Calendar) and Gujeong (January 1 on Lunar Calendar) as New Year's Day and celebrate both days. Chuseok date is fixed by the Lunar Calendar.

==== Seolnal (Gujeong) ====
January 1, New Year's Day on the Lunar Calendar. Koreans eat "tteokguk" (rice cake soup), wear "Seolbim" (traditional Korean dress) and perform "Sebae" (type of bow) to parents, and senior relatives on Seolnal.

About Korea

2021-03-19T04:03:32Z

John: Created page with "=== General Information === __TOC__ ==== Official Name of the Country ==== Official Name: Republic of Korea<br> Common name: South Korea ==== Location, Area ==== Korea is..."

Publishing Message - Hwawoo

2021-03-19T02:11:54Z

John:

Hwawoo Public Foundation (Yoon & Yang Pro Bono Foundation) has continuously sought ways to provide support for overseas adoptees who revisit the country during the course of understanding their difficulties and providing them with legal consultations. In this line, it has signed legal support agreements with the Korea Adoption Services (KAS) in May of 2017 and with 'Change Coalition,' an activist organization for the rights of overseas adoptees. The publishing of this Overseas Adoptees Guidebook is the outcome of close cooperation among the organizations and institutions.

There are still many overseas adoptees who go through difficulties in areas of nationality, identity confusion and settling in Korea. It is very fortunate that our society is not yet making a warm and stable fence for the adoptees. Only when we, including the adoptees, all feel as part of their inter-connected community, can we truly feel the affection of our home country.

While this guidebook cannot provide everything that overseas adoptees need, we sincerely hope that it can contribute to helping them find comfort during their stay in Korea. Hwawoo Public foundation and Yoon & Yang LLC will continue to supplement the details while proactively providing legal support and protecting the rights and interests of the overseas adoptees.

Our special thanks goes to everyone at CHANGE Coalition and Korea Adoption Services, lawyers Seol Ji-hye, Lim Hee-seong, Park Ji-ho, Park Eun-jung, Chae Hae-mi, Choi Kwang-seok, Kang Seung-wook, Jo Hyung-myung at Yoon & Yang LLC, international attorney Kim Jeong-hyun, lawyers Ham Bo-hyun and Hong Yoo-jin of Hwawoo Public Foundation who took part in the publication of the guidebook despite their busy schedules.

<div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">Chairman Park Young-lib of YOON&YANG PRO BONO FOUNDATION</div>

Publishing Message - Hwawoo

2021-03-19T02:10:33Z

John: Created page with "Hwawoo Public Foundation (Yoon & Yang Pro Bono Foundation) has continuously sought ways to provide support for overseas adoptees who revisit the country during the course of u..."

Publishing Message - NCRC

2021-03-19T01:50:26Z

John:

There are about 170,000 overseas adoptees who have been born in Korea but have been adopted overseas and raised in other countries including the U.S., France and Sweden. There are many overseas adoptees living in adoptive country with having a great curiosity towards their identity and home country.

Ever since its establishment in 2012, Korea Adoption Services (KAS) has provided post-adoption services for those who have been adopted overseas ranging from finding their family members, motherland tour, learning Korean language and supporting their temporary residence. Although KAS has been merged into the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) due to revise of child welfare law on July 16, 2019, KAS as a department of NCRC is still providing various services for adoptees and adoptive families just like before.

With the increase in the number of overseas adoptees who wish to stay or reside in Korea, we decided to publish the "Guidebook for Overseas Adoptees" together with YOON&YANG PRO BONO FOUNDATION to provide them with "information related to living" in areas of traffic, communication and finance as well as "legal information" that include visa, shelter and law enforcement.

We sincerely hope that this guidebook enable overseas adoptees to better understand their home country and help them adjust well in Korea. In addition, we ask for your continuous interest and support so that this guidebook can be amended or supplemented to become an essential guide to the overseas adoptees.

<div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">The President of NCRC</div>

Publishing Message - NCRC

2021-03-19T01:47:59Z

John:

There are about 170,00 overseas adoptees who have been born in Korea but have been adopted overseas and raised in other countries including the U.S., France and Sweden. There are many overseas adoptees living in adoptive country with having a great curiosity towards their identity and home country.

Ever since its establishment in 2012, Korea Adoption Services has provided post-adoption services for those who have been adopted overseas ranging from finding their family members, motherland tour, learning Korean language and supporting their temporary residence. Although KAS has been merged into NCRC due to revise of child welfare law on July 16, 2019, KAS as a department of NCRC is still providing various services for adoptees and adoptive families just like before.

With the increase in the number of overseas adoptees who wish to stay or reside in Korea, we decided to publish the "Guidebook for Overseas Adoptees" together with YOON&YANG PRO BONO FOUNDATION to provide them with "information related to living" in areas of traffic, communication and finance as well as "legal information" that include visa, shelter and law enforcement.

We sincerely hope that this guidebook enable overseas adoptees to better understand their home country and help them adjust well in Korea. In addition, we ask for your continuous interest and support so that this guidebook can be amended or supplemented to become an essential guide to the overseas adoptees.

<div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">The President of NCRC</div>

Publishing Message - NCRC

2021-03-19T01:46:23Z

John:

Publishing Message - NCRC

2021-03-19T01:40:54Z

John: Publishing Message - NCRC