South Korea:

 South Korea:

South Korea, country in East Asia. It occupies the southern portion of the Korean peninsula. The country is bordered by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) to the north, the East Sea (Sea of Japan) to the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west; to the southeast it is separated from the Japanese island of Tsushima by the Korea Strait. South Korea makes up about 45 percent of the peninsula’s land area. The capital is Seoul (Sŏul).South Korea faces North Korea across a demilitarized zone (DMZ) 2.5 miles (4 km) wide that was established by the terms of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War (1950–53). The DMZ, which runs for about 150 miles (240 km), constitutes the 1953 military cease-fire line and roughly follows latitude 38° N (the 38th parallel) from the mouth of the Han River on the west coast of the Korean peninsula to a little south of the North Korean town of Kosŏng on the east coast.Geologically, South Korea consists in large part of Precambrian rocks (i.e., more than about 540 million years old) such as granite and gneiss. The country is largely mountainous, with small valleys and narrow coastal plains. The T’aebaek Mountains run in roughly a north-south direction along the eastern coastline and northward into North Korea, forming the country’s drainage divide. From them several mountain ranges branch off with a northeast-southwest orientation. The most important of these are the Sobaek Mountains, which undulate in a long S-shape across the peninsula. None of South Korea’s mountains are very high: the T’aebaek Mountains reach an elevation of 5,604 feet (1,708 metres) at Mount Sŏrak in the northeast, and the Sobaek Mountains reach 6,283 feet (1,915 metres) at Mount Chiri. The highest peak in South Korea, the extinct volcano Mount Halla on Cheju Island, is 6,398 feet (1,950 metres) above sea level.

Six years of primary school education and three years of middle school are compulsory, and virtually all children of school age are enrolled. Nearly all middle-school graduates continue to high school or technical school. About four-fifths of high school graduates go on to higher educational institutions. Graduation from a college or university grew considerably in importance in South Korea after World War II, and the number of college-level institutions increased enormously. Admission to a college or university requires applicants to pass a fiercely competitive entrance examination; high school students must endure grueling preparation work for these examinations, and less than half of high school graduates get the opportunity to study at universities. Nearly all of the most-prestigious schools are located in Seoul; these include the state-run Seoul National University (founded 1946)—one of more than a dozen national universities located throughout the country—and the private Korea University (1905), Yonsei University (1885), Ewha Womans University (1886), and Sookmyung Women’s University (1906). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, overseas study, particularly in the United States, grew in popularity.Traveling troupes that performed shadow or puppet plays, did acrobatics and juggling, danced and sang, and performed versions of court or popular entertainments were long a feature of Korean village and provincial town life. Among the oldest forms of Korean dance and theatre performance is the masked dance. In addition to professional groups, villagers in different areas of the country formed folk groups to perform their own local versions of the sandae masked play and dances. Today the sandae is performed by villagers in Kyŏnggi and South Kyŏngsang provinces as well as in parts of North Korea. Performers are males. Masks cover either the whole head or the face and are made from paper or gourds or, occasionally, are carved from wood. They are boldly painted to represent the stock characters of the play: monks, shaman, noblemen, young dancing girl, and others.

P’ansori, a sung narrative accompanied by virtuoso drumming, was created by professional performers during the Chosŏn period. Either a man or a woman could be the solo singer-dancer, and the performer was often a shaman. The current repertoire of six long stories was codified in the 19th century by the performer Shin Jae-hyo.

Traditional folk dances, some of them ancient, survive, and several—the mask dance (chŏyongmu) of the Silla kingdom, the crane dance (hakch’um) of the Koryŏ, and the dance of the spring nightingale (ch’unaengjŏn)—are supported and promoted by the government as designated “intangible cultural properties.” Folk music, accompanied by traditional musical instruments such as the kayagŭm (a 12-stringed zither) and the changgo (an hourglass-shaped drum), has undergone a revival and is performed at ceremonies and festive occasioKorean popular music, or “K-pop,” emerged as an international phenomenon in the 21st century and became one of South Korea’s most visible cultural exports. Hip-hop star Rain was at the forefront of this movement; by 2005 he had expanded on his significant success in the Korean market to dominate the popular music charts across East and Southeast Asia. Rapper PSY was the next breakout star to emerge on the international stage. His satirical hit “Gangnam Style” was a global smash thanks to its catchy beats and an absurd music video that amassed billions of views on YouTube. Perhaps the most visible K-pop artists, though, were boy bands such as BTS, which combined elements of electronic dance music and hip-hop with impeccable choreography and coordinated outfits. BTS won a massive following around the world, and in May 2018 they became the first K-pop artists to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.One of the earliest examples of Korean painting is found in the mural paintings in the royal tombs of Koguryŏ. The best-known mural paintings are those in the Ssangyong Tomb at Yonggang, located in North Korea. Ceramic arts became highly developed, flourishing during the Koryŏ period—when Korea produced some of its most notable examples of fine celadon ware—and diffusing to Japan. Every province continues to produce its distinctive ceramic ware.Korean architecture shows Chinese influence, but it is adapted to local conditions, utilizing wood and granite, the most abundant building materials. Beautiful examples are found in old palaces, Buddhist temples, dolmens, and Buddhist pagodas. Western-style architecture became common from the 1970s, fundamentally changing the urban landscape, but some old-style wooden houses (hanok) still exist even in Seoul, and the traditional Korean floor-heating system (ondol) continues to be used in new construction.