Korea, South

Abstract

The Korean peninsula was first settled by tribal peoples from Manchuria and Siberia who provided the basis for the modern Korean language. By 3000 BC agriculture-based communities had emerged. The earliest known colony in the region was established at Pyongyang in the 12th century BC. Among the most prominent agricultural communities was Old Choson, which by 194 BC had evolved into a league of tribes ruled by Wiman or ‘Wei Man’, a leader widely held to have defected from China, although he may have been a native of the Choson region. His realm was taken over by the Han empire of China in 108 BC and replaced by four Chinese colonies.