It's that time of the year again, when journalists fill newspaper pages with lists of the most memorable, tragic and funny moments of the past 12 months.
From the political upheavals in north Africa and the Middle East to the worldwide protests against the current financial instability, devastating disasters in Japan, New Zealand and Australia, and riots on the streets of London, 2011 was truly a year of unbelievable importance.
In Ireland, you bore witness to two major elections, the worsening of the ever more precarious economy, and Ireland qualifying for a major soccer championship for the first time in a decade.
But what about South Korea? Naturally, this space is not enough to chart every major event on the peninsula this year, but here are just some of the biggest news stories from 2011.
The year was barely two weeks old when Somali pirates hijacked the South Korean-operated Samho Jewelry chemical tanker in the Arabian Sea, on route to Sri Lanka. President Lee Myung-bak warned that the navy would “comprehensively deal with” with the crisis, and so Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was launched to free the international crew on-board the tanker.
On 21 January, six days after the initial hijacking, navy commandos boarded the ship and within five hours, the situation was under control. The rescue was labelled “a perfect military operation” in South Korea, where the five captured pirates will stand trial for attempted murder and maritime robbery.
Six months later, there was some embarrassment after two US Marine guards stationed on Gyodong Island fired at a civilian jet coming to land at Incheon Airport, west of Seoul. Fortunately the marines were out of range of the Asiana airliner, operating a routine flight from China which was approaching to land at the country’s main airport, situated on an island just 25 miles from the border with North Korea.
The troops, however, mistook the airliner for a North Korean military jet after becoming suspicious about the course it was taking. An Asiana official described the plane’s route, which was carrying 119 people, as normal at the time of the incident.
This year has also been a very testing time for sport in Korea, and in soccer particularly. After the men’s national team crashed out of the Asian Cup on penalties to rivals Japan, the flailing reputation of the domestic league took an absolute hammering when news broke of a major investigation into match fixing.
In all, 21 games were investigated for alleged match fixing, and 39 current or retired soccer players were jailed (some for up to three years) or fined for their roles in the scandal.
The case also allegedly led to the suicide of Incheon United’s promising young goalkeeper Yoon Ki-won. According to media reports at the time, Yoon was said to have left 1 million won (€660 euro) in an envelope in his car, the scene of his death.
In more positive news, the country celebrated winning the rights to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games east of Seoul, and another successful baseball season that included the glorious sight of an 81-year-old man throwing a 70-plus-kmph fastball in an off-season try out.
There was also a tear gas attack on politicians, heavy summer flooding, fishing boat incidents and Usain Bolt running in Daegu. But as I said before, there simply isn’t room here for everything. Happy New Year from Korea!
Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.
