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South Korea PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Land Area and Borders
The Korean Peninsula extends for about 1,000 kilometers
southward from the northeast part of the Asian continental
landmass. The Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu are located
some 200 kilometers to the southeast across the Korea Strait; the
Shandong Peninsula of China lies 190 kilometers to the west. The
west coast of the peninsula is bordered by the Korea Bay to the
north and the Yellow Sea to the south; the east coast is bordered
by the Sea of Japan (known in Korea as the East Sea). The 8,640-
kilometer coastline is highly indented. Some 3,579 islands lie
adjacent to the peninsula. Most of them are found along the south
and west coasts.
The northern land border of the Korean Peninsula is formed by
the Yalu and Tumen rivers, which separate Korea from the
provinces of Jilin and Liaoning in China. The original border
between the two Korean states was the thirty-eighth parallel of
atitude. After the Korean War, the Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ--see Glossary)
formed the boundary between the two. The DMZ is a
heavily guarded, 4,000-meter-wide strip of land that runs along
the line of cease-fire, the
Demarcation Line (see Glossary),
from the east to the west coasts for a distance of 241 kilometers (238
kilometers of that line form the land boundary with North Korea).
The total land area of the peninsula, including the islands,
is 220,847 square kilometers. Some 44.6 percent (98,477 square
kilometers) of this total, excluding the area within the DMZ,
constitutes the territory of the Republic of Korea. The combined
territories of North Korea and South Korea are about the same
size as the state of Minnesota. South Korea alone is about the
size of Portugal or Hungary, and is slightly larger than the
state of Indiana.
The largest island, Cheju, lies off the southwest corner of
the peninsula and has a land area of 1,825 square kilometers.
Other important islands include Ullung in the Sea of Japan and
Kanghwa Island at the mouth of the Han River. Although the
eastern coastline of South Korea is generally unindented, the
southern and western coasts are jagged and irregular. The
difference is caused by the fact that the eastern coast is
gradually rising, while the southern and western coasts are
subsiding.
Lacking formidable land or sea barriers along its borders and
occupying a central position among East Asian nations, the Korean
Peninsula has served as a cultural bridge between the mainland
and the Japanese archipelago. Korea contributed greatly to the
development of Japan by transmitting both Indian Buddhist and
Chinese Confucian culture, art, and religion. At the same time,
Korea's exposed geographical position left it vulnerable to
invasion by its stronger neighbors. When, in the late nineteenth
century, British statesman Lord George Curzon described Korea as
a "sort of political Tom Tiddler's ground between China, Russia,
and Japan," he was describing a situation that had prevailed for
several millennia, as would be tragically apparent during the
twentieth century.
Data as of June 1990
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