ABSTRACT
Korea lies mid-way in between China and Japan. The Korean Peninsula borders the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. According to the Korean government homepage (https://www.korea.net/), the shortest distances between Korean and Chinese coasts, and between Korean and Japanese coasts are both 200 kilometres. Chinese culture thus filtered into Japan through Korea due to such geographical location. The Korean peninsula was “affected far more by the civilizations on the Asian continent than by those in Japan” in ancient times. Consequently, there is the “common culture sphere of Buddhism and Confucianism” between the three countries. The Korean Peninsula is protruding southwards from the northeastern part of the
Asian Continent. It is divided into three distinct regions comprising Central, South and North. Each region is further divided into three separate “geographical spheres”. Each “sphere” has its economic, cultural and physical distinctiveness. Inside the Central region is Seoul. All the areas north of the Demilitarized Zone are referred to as the North (https://www.korea.net/). The land area of South Korea, excluding the portion of North Korea, amounts
to 99,373 square kilometres, and includes approximately 3,200 islands of various sizes. South Korea is about the size of Hungary (93,000 square kilometres) and Jordan (97,700 square kilometres). Habitable land, however, is only a quarter of the total land area where 47 million people inhabit as of 2002 thus making South Korea one of the most densely populated nations on the earth (KRIHS website: https://www.krihs.re.kr/eng/about/foundation.asp).
