Busan in the context of "Prisoner-of-war camp"

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes 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. Like North Korea, South Korea claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. It has a population of about 52 million, of which half live in the Seoul metropolitan area, the ninth most populous metropolitan area in the world; other major cities include Busan, Daegu, and Incheon.

The Korean Peninsula was inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early seventh century BC. From the mid first century BC, various polities consolidated into the rival kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. The lattermost eventually unified most of the peninsula for the first time in the late seventh century AD, while Balhae succeeded Goguryeo in the north. The Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) achieved lasting unification and established the basis for the modern Korean identity. The subsequent Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) generated cultural, economic, and scientific achievements and also established isolationism starting from the mid-17th century. The succeeding Korean Empire (1897–1910) sought modernization and reform but was annexed in 1910 into the Empire of Japan. Japanese rule ended following Japan's surrender in World War II, after which Korea was divided into two zones: the Soviet-occupied northern zone and the United States-occupied southern zone. After negotiations on reunification failed, the southern zone became the Republic of Korea in August 1948, while the northern zone became the communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea the following month.

Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, about 3 million people live in the city, making it South Korea's third-most-populous city after Seoul and Busan.

The city's growth has been assured in modern times with the development of its port due to its natural advantages as a coastal city and its proximity to the South Korean capital. It is part of the Seoul Metropolitan Area, along with Seoul itself and Gyeonggi Province, forming the world's fourth-largest metropolitan area by population.

Daegu (Korean: 대구 [tɛ̝.ɡu]), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (대구광역시), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest metropolitan city in the nation with over 2.3 million residents; and the second-largest city after Busan in the Yeongnam region in southeastern South Korea. Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province are often referred to as Daegu-Gyeongbuk, with a total population of over 5 million.

Daegu is located in south-eastern Korea about 80 km (50 mi) from the coast, near the Geumho River and its mainstream, Nakdong River in Gyeongsang Province. The Daegu basin is the central plain of the Yeongnam region. In ancient times, the Daegu area was part of the proto-kingdom Jinhan. Subsequently, Daegu came under the control of the Silla Kingdom, which unified the Korean Peninsula. During the Joseon period, the city was the capital of Gyeongsang Province, one of the traditional eight provinces of the country.

The 121st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session was held on October 1–9, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, during which Rio de Janeiro was selected as the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The city of Copenhagen was chosen on February 8, 2006 by the 118th IOC Session held in Turin, Italy to stage the 13th Olympic Congress, together with the meetings of the Executive Board and the 121st IOC Session. The other candidates were Athens (Greece), Busan (South Korea), Cairo (Egypt), Riga (Latvia), Singapore, Taipei (Chinese Taipei). Convened on the initiative of President Jacques Rogge, the 13th Olympic Congress brought together all the constituent parties of the Olympic Movement to study and discuss the current functioning of the Movement and define the main development axes for the future.

The programme for the meeting was:

Koreans in Japan (在日韓国人・在日本朝鮮人・朝鮮人, Zainichi Kankokujin/Zainihon Chōsenjin/Chōsenjin) (Korean: 재일 한국/조선인) are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South Korean nationals who have immigrated to Japan since the end of World War II and the division of Korea.

They currently constitute the third largest ethnic minority group in Japan after Chinese immigrants. Their population declined significantly due to death, returning to Korea, and assimilating into the general Japanese population. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans (在日韓国・朝鮮人, Zainichi Kankoku/Chōsenjin), often known simply as Zainichi (在日; lit. 'in Japan'), who are ethnic Korean permanent residents of Japan. The term Zainichi Korean refers only to long-term Korean residents of Japan who trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule, distinguishing them from the later wave of Korean migrants who came mostly in the 1980s, and from pre-modern immigrants dating back to antiquity, possibly including the Yayoi people who constitute the biggest ancestral group of the Japanese people.

The Kaya confederacy (Korean: 가야; Hanja: 加倻; pronounced [ka.ja]), also romanized as Gaya confederacy, was a Korean confederacy of territorial polities in the Nakdong River basin of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan period.

The traditional period used by historians for Kaya chronology is AD 42–532. Geumgwan Kaya, the ruling state of the confederacy, was conquered in 532 and the last holdout, Daegaya fell in 562. According to archaeological evidence in the third and fourth centuries some of the city-states of Byeonhan evolved into the Kaya confederacy, which was later annexed by Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The individual polities that made up the Kaya confederacy have been characterized as small city-states. The material culture remains of Kaya culture mainly consist of burials and their contents of mortuary goods that have been excavated by archaeologists. Archaeologists interpret mounded burial cemeteries of the late third and early fourth centuries such as Daeseong-dong in Gimhae and Bokcheon-dong in Busan as the royal burial grounds of Kaya polities.

Ulsan (Korean: 울산; Korean pronunciation: [uɭ.s͈an]), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring Busan to the south and facing Gyeongju to the north.

Ulsan is the industrial powerhouse of South Korea, forming the heart of the Ulsan Industrial District. It has the world's largest automobile assembly plant, operated by the Hyundai Motor Company; the world's largest shipyard, operated by Hyundai Heavy Industries; and the world's third largest oil refinery, owned by SK Energy. In 2020, Ulsan had a GDP per capita of $65,352, the highest of any region in South Korea.