1_On May 15, 1988, the Hankyoreh was inaugurated. In an editorial on the front page of the inaugural issue, the Hanky oreh committed itself to representing the views of the people as well as to defend freedom of the press.

2_On Dec. 21, 1988, the Hankyoreh published a scoop expo sing Lee Keun-Ahn, then-incumbent Director of Public Security for Kyeonggi Province, as the former security official who had used electric torture on a number of victims. A number of diss ident figures, including those who had been tortured brutally by Mr. Lee, had been striving to identify the torturer. Among the victims were Kim Keun-tae, former minister of Health and Social Welfare and a Congressman and Lee Jae-oh, presently floor leader of the main opposition Grand National Party. After the exposure, Mr. Lee was arrested and indicted for torture and abuse of power.

3_On Apr. 21, 1989, agents of the National Security Planning Agency (NSPA), presently National Intelligence Agency, raided the office of the Hankyoreh and took two senior staffs of the Hankyoreh into custody on charge of violation of National Se curity Law. The two staffs were Jang Yoon-hwan(right in the picture), managing editor, and Chung Tae-ki(left in the picture), Director of Development Headquarter. Mr. Chung is now presi dent of the Hankyoreh. NSPA insisted that the Hankyoreh's plan to dispatch reporters to cover north Korea was violation of National Security Law prohibiting unauthorized contacts with north Koreans as well as visits to north Korea. The abor tive coverage plan was led by the two figures. The front page story reported the raid.

4_On May 16, 1990, the Hankyoreh carried a story of Mr. Lee Moon-ok's arrest. Mr. Lee, public auditor of the Board of Audit and Inspection, provided to a Hankyoreh reporter a copy of inspection reports on tremendous possessions of land by chaebol or industrial conglomerates. The Hankyoreh carry a se ries of story based on the reports, revealing chaebol had bee n making huge capital gains through land speculation.

5_On Oct 5, 1990, the Hankyoreh published an exclusive stor y on the illegal surveillances by Military Intelligence Agency of 1,300 leading civilian leaders including former President Kim Young-sam and Cardinal Kim. The Hankyoreh carry the story based on a whistle-blowing by a deserter Yoon Suk-yang who had felt angry about the constant surveillances by the military intelligence organization. This exposure shocked Korean peo ple who believed that authoritain rule was over with the inau guration of President Roh Tae-woo in 1989.

6_On Mar. 23, 1992, the Hankyoreh broke a shocking story tha t ballotings in the military barracks across the nation were rigg ed in a large scale in the general elections. The exposure was based on the testimony by Lee Ji-moon, first lieutenant with 9th Division of Army. Lee was quoted as saying that company commanders in the barracks coerced soldiers to vote for candi dates of the then ruling Democratic Liberal Party. Lee was also quoted in the story as saying that open balloting was carried out in some barracks. Shortly after the whistle-blo wing to the Hankyoreh Lee was arrested and court-martialed.

7_The issue of Mar. 10, 1977 is a historic scoop exposing the overstepping and scandals of Kim Hyun-chol, son of President Kim Young-sam, which dealt a heavy blow to President Kim. The story revealed that Hyun-chol overstepped in the choice of a state-run cable TV network YTN, underscoring the rumor that he was wielding formidable influence almost like second President at back stage. President Kim admitted publicly hat his son was inappropriated in the government affairs and apo logized for the misdeeds. This story sparked off media buzz and his various wrongdoings were published in the media. In the wake of these scandals, President Kim lost moral autho rity and slipped into a lame-duck president.

8_On Mar. 30 2001, the Hankyoreh carried a story showing th at the Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo, two of Korea's leading dai lies, paid tribute to Japanese Emperor and collaborated arden tly with Japanese colonialists during Japanese colonial rule. The owners of the two newspapers took part in the propaga nda drives by the Japanese imperialists actively. After Japan invaded China in 1937, Chosun Ilbo published a New Year iss ue showing great allegiances toward Japanese colonialist by inserting Japanese national flag upon the masterhead its pa per on front page. The Hankyoreh published a series of speci al reports on the pro-Japanese activities of the owners of Cho sun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo during Japanese colonial occupation.

9_The front page of May 25, 1999 issue carried a revealing story on contentious lobbying activities by Mrs. Lee Hyung-ja, wife of Choe Soon-young, chairman of Shindonga group who se flagship company had been Daehan Life Insurance. Mrs. Lee bought luxurious garments for wives of incumbent power ful ministers of Kim Dae-jung government as part of her lobby ing efforts to set free her husband in jail. Her husband was arrested on charges of diverting foreign ea rnings illegally. Among the involved in the arment lobby scan dal?were wives of incumbent justice minister, former reunifica tion minister and defense minister. This scandal, which took around one year President Kim took office, was the first accident which raised questi ons about moral hazards of key senior officials. Since that time on, the popularity of Kim Dae-jung government continue to decline.

10_On Aug. 25, 2000 the Hankyoreh carried a story disclosing that Hanbit Bank, a city bank, provided a sum of 46 billion won ( around 500 million US dollars) bank loans to several compani es at the request of Park Ji-won, minister of culture and touris m, a top aide to President Kim Dae-jung , widely believed to be wielding formidable influence on politics as well as business at that time. This report sparked off a fierce controversy over whether Mr. Park abused his power in the favorable loans. It turned out that the companies which got the privileged loan s were run by Mr. Park relatives and acquaintances. Exposures concerning Park oversteppings followed one after another. Finally President Kim fired Park. This scandal undermin ed severely moral ground of the Kim regime.

11_On March 4, 2003, The Hankyoreh published the 5,000th issue since its inauguration on May 15, 1988. In a special front -page column, Mr. Kwon Jung-saeng, fairy tale writer, emphasiz ed that the Hankyoreh should present a dream to the Korean people. The Hankyoreh has made strident progresses during the past 16 years, establishing itself as an ardent champion of independent journalism and national reconciliation and pea ce in the Korean Peninsula.