Hello

Korean American, lived in Korea for middle and high school. I'm a machine learning engineer. I speak English, Korean, Mandarin Chinese (conversational), and Japanese (basic). I can also struggle through Russian when I need to with a dictionary on hand. I want to document interesting stories that are not well known in the West.

Interests

[Primary] Korean history: 1850–1990
- 1945–1949, between WWII and the Korean War
  - The decolonization of Korea and the repatriation of Japanese and Korean civilians
- Korean rebels in China and the USSR
- Korea under Japanese rule
Minority groups
- Korean and Japanese diasporas
  - Koryo-saram, Sakhalin Koreans, Zainichi Koreans, Koreans in Mexico, Koreans in Cuba
  - Japanese Brazilians
- Minorities in Korea and Japan
- North Korean defectors
Current geopolitics
Religious studies
- Abrahamic faiths
  - Early Christianity and Islam
  - Minority branches (Samaritans, Druze, Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Beta Israel)
- South Asian religions, especially Hinduism and Sikhism, and their practice outside of Asia

My work

Selected articles I wrote most of.


Article	Synopsis
Yakov Novichenko	Soviet man who saved Kim Il Sung from a terrorist attack. 38 years later, he developed a cult of personality in North Korea
Park Chung Hee (WIP, done until teaching job) Birthplace of Park Chung Hee Musical Park Chung Hee	Yup lol
White clothing in Korea (WIP)	For thousands of years, many Koreans only wore white clothes every day. This practice survived over a hundred attempts to end it and the Japanese colonial period, and only ended just after the Korean War reminder to self; look into 소복 (素服)
Kim Ku (WIP, still need 1945–1949)	A South Korean national hero that is virtually unknown outside of the peninsula
1883 Korean special mission to the United States	The first-ever official Korean visit to the United States. They were terrified of elevators and marveled at vacuum mail tubes
Chŏng Sang-chin	The only ethnic Korean soldier who fought in the first battle of its August 1945 liberation. Kim Il Sung allegedly stole his story
Budae-jjigae	Stew created during the Korean War, originally using food waste or smuggled goods from U.S. army bases
Yeom Dong-jin	A fascist Korean assassin/terrorist known during the 1940s as "The Blind General"
White Shirts Society	Yeom's secret organization, linked to numerous political assassinations and gang activity in the 1940s
Utoro, Uji	A former shantytown of forced Korean laborers in Kyoto, Japan. They dodged eviction for 65 years, until they finally could afford to legally purchase the land they lived on
Hyochang Park (File:Hyochangwon as Korea's first golf course.jpg ; POTD 2023-11-23)	A Korean royal cemetery that Japan turned into a golf course
António Corea	Possibly the first Korean to set foot in Europe: a slave
Hwangudan	Royal shrine in Seoul. In 1897, the last king of Joseon made a symbolic royal sacrifice to heaven here in the final years of Korean independence. The shrine was then mostly destroyed, and now partially stands next to a hotel, largely forgotten
Sino-Korean Border Agreement	A secret agreement that set the modern China–North Korea border
Righteous Revenge	(Debatably) the first Korean film
Chōsen Shinpō	The first newspaper in Korea: a Japanese newspaper
Hansŏng sunbo	The first native Korean newspaper
Our Construction	The first ever North Korean film
Grigory Mekler	Kim Il Sung's Soviet PR guy who later gave numerous interviews that embarrassed North Korea