History of science and technology in Korea

At the end of the Palaeolithic, people of the Korean Peninsula adopted microlithic stone tool technology, a highly efficient and useful way of making and maintaining a flexible prehistoric toolkit.

[1] People depended on gathering, hunting, and fishing as the main source of food until the Middle Jeulmun Period (c. 3500 to 2000 BC) when small-scale cultivation of plants began.

[2] This advance in food production irrevocably altered the subsistence systems of the Mumun and hastened the beginnings of intensive agriculture in the Korean Peninsula.

Korea and adjacent areas of East Asia seem to have been a part of the domestication region of soybean (Glycine max) between 1500 and 500 BC.

After 850 BC, hearths disappeared from the interior of pit-house architecture and was likely replaced with some kind of brazier-like technology in Hoseo, Honam, and western Yeongnam.

[8][9][10] The production of hard-fired stoneware ceramics, in which clay is vitrified in kilns at >1000 °C, occurred first in the Korean Peninsula during the Three Kingdoms Period.

One of very few examples of science and technology during the Three Kingdoms of Korea that has survived until this day is the Cheomseongdae, which means "star gazing platform" and is one of the oldest observatories installed on Earth.

The nine-story wooden pagoda of Hwangnyongsa, which was commissioned by Queen Seondeok after the main temple was finished, is reputed to be the largest premodern Korean stupa ever built.

[13][14][15][16][17][18] This invention made printing easier, more efficient and also increased literacy, which observed by Chinese visitors was seen to be so important where it was considered to be shameful to not be able to read.

In 1373 experiments with incendiary arrows and "fire tubes" possibly an early form of the Hwacha were developed and placed on Korean warships.

Ch'oe Mu-sŏn, a medieval Korean inventor, military commander and scientist, introduced the widespread use of gunpowder to Korea for the first time and created various gunpowder-based weapons.

Jang eventually was allowed to live at the royal palace, where he led a group of scientists to work on advancing Korea's science.

[citation needed] Some of his inventions were an automated (self-striking) water clock (the Jagyeokru) which worked by activating motions of wooden figures to indicate time visually (invented in 1434 by Jang), a subsequent more complicated water-clock with additional astronomical devices, and an improved model of the previous metal movable printing type created in the Goryeo period.

The highpoint of Korean astronomy was during the Joseon period, where men such as Jang created devices such as celestial globes which indicated the positions of the sun, moon, and the stars.

The apex of astronomical and calendarial advances under King Sejong was the Chiljeongsan, which compiled computations of the courses of the seven heavenly objects (five visible planets, the sun, and moon), developed in 1442.

This work made it possible for scientists to calculate and accurately predict all the major heavenly phenomena, such as solar eclipses and other stellar movements.

[24][25] In general, software development is on a high level and it could become a major export item in the future, along with world-class voice recognition, automation and medical technology.

[26] North Korea has developed its own operating system, the Red Star,[27] and has an intranet network named Kwangmyong, which contains censored content from the Internet.

[29] North Korea is also researching and deploying various military technologies, such as GPS jammers,[30] stealth paint,[31] midget submarines and[32] chemical, biological and nuclear weapons,[33] anti-personnel lasers[34] and ballistic missiles.

It was not until the 1960s under the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee where South Korea's economy rapidly grew from industrialisation and the Chaebol corporations such as Samsung and LG.

Park took the gold medal with his invention of a special device that converts vibrations from a running car into electric power.

The scientist Hwang Woo-suk, now officially disgraced, led a bio-engineering team that created three living clones of a dog that died in 2002.

[41] Korea also exports radioactive isotope production equipment for medical and industrial use to countries such as Russia, Japan, Turkey and others.