Jeonju

Jeonju (Korean pronunciation: [tɕʌndʑu]) is a city in South Korea, and the capital of North Jeolla Province. It is an important tourist center famous for Korean food, historic buildings, sports activities and innovative festivals.

In May 2012, Jeonju was chosen as a Creative Cities for Gastronomy as part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network. This honour recognize the city's traditional home cooking handed down through generations over thousands of years, its active public and private food research, a system of nurturing talented chefs, and its hosting of distinctive local food festivals.

History

Located in the fertile Honam plain, famous for strawberries and exceptional produce, Jeonju has been an important regional center in the province for centuries. Once, the city was the capital of Hubaekje Kingdom, which was founded by Gyeon Hwon. The city was regarded as the spiritual capital of the Joseon Dynasty because the Yi royal family originated there. The Chŏnju Kim in North Korea, of whom Kim Il-sung was descended from, have their ancestral seat (pon’gwan) in Jeonju as well.

South Korea

Coordinates: 36°N 128°E / 36°N 128°E / 36; 128

South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; hanja: 大韓民國; RR: Daehanminguk,  listen) and commonly referred to as Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name Korea is derived from the ancient Kingdom of Goguryeo, also known as Koryŏ. Highly urbanized at 92%, Koreans lead a distinctive urban lifestyle with half of them living in the Seoul Capital Area, the world's second largest city with over 25 million residents and a leading global city with the fourth largest economy, rated in 2016 as the world's most livable megacity and safest city to live in. Highly mountainous, Korea is a popular winter sport destination in Asia, hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing at 1st century BC. One of them, Goguryeo, ruled Northeast China, parts of Russia and Mongolia under Gwanggaeto the Great. Since their unification into Silla and Balhae in the 7th century, Korea enjoyed over a millennium of relative tranquility under long lasting dynasties with innovations like Hangul, the unique alphabet created by Sejong the Great in 1446, enabling anyone to easily learn to read and write. Its rich and vibrant culture left 17 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1910 due to its strategic and central location, after whose surrender in 1945, it was divided into North and South Korea. A North Korean invasion lead to the Korean War (1950–53). Peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the world's 10th largest defence budget and strong global alliances. In 2016, Korea was rated as the world's safest country to live in, with the lowest crime rate.

Korea

Korea, called Chosŏn (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮) in North Korea and Hanguk (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國) or Daehanminkuk (Korean: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國) in South Korea, is an East Asian territory that is divided into two distinct sovereign states: North Korea, formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and South Korea, formally the Republic of Korea (ROK). Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast. It is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan .

Korea emerged as a singular political entity after centuries of conflict among the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which were unified as Silla (57 BC – AD 935) and Balhae (AD 698 – 926). The united Silla was eventually succeeded by Goryeo in 935 at the end of the Later Three Kingdoms period. Goryeo, which gave name to the modern exonym "Korea", was a highly cultured state and created the Jikji in the 14th century. The invasions by the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, however, greatly weakened the nation, which forced it into vassalage. After the Yuan dynasty's collapse, severe political strife followed. Goryeo eventually fell to an uprising led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon in 1388.

North Jeolla Province

North Jeolla Province or Jeollabuk-do (전라북도; 全羅北道; Jeollabuk-do) is a province in the southwest of South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Jeolla province, and remained a province of Korea until the country's division in 1945, then became part of South Korea. The provincial capital is located at Jeonju, which was the capital of all of Jeolla before 1896.

History

During the Proto-Three Kingdoms period, Jeolla region was the center of the Mahan confederacy among Samhan. There were 15 tribal countries out of 54 located in the region. During the period of the Three States, this region came to belong to Baekje when it absorbed Mahan. Baekje was destroyed by the Silla and Chinese Tang dynasty allied force in 660 (20th year of King Uija) and ruled by Tang. It became a part of Silla when Tang was expelled in 676 (16th year of King Munmu).

When there were 9 states and 5 small capitals in Unified Silla in 685, there were Wansan-ju (present Jeonju) and Namwon-gyeong (present Namwon) in Jeollabuk-do in existence.

Jeonju International Film Festival

Launched in 2000, Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, Korean: 전주국제영화제, Hanja: 全州國際映畵祭) is one of the Asian film festivals.

In the first edition of JIFF, debut films of Darren ARONOFSKY, Fernando MEIRELLES, and Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU were introduced to South Korea. For the first time in Asia, Jiff highlighted early works of Béla TARR, Ulrich SEIDL, Laurent CANTET as well. The winners of Jeonju IFF’s International Competition Section include Matias PIÑEIRO, YING Liang, Denis CÔTÉ, Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, SUWA Nobuhiro, John AKOMFRAH and MIIKE Takashi.

Another point of Jeonju is that it produces movies as well. Directors that once invited to Jeonju IFF, were later invited again to Jeonju Digital Project (JDP) which is a set of three digital shorts. JDP granted financial support to masters for their short films and world-premiered those pieces in Jeonju. The former directors ran JDP include ZHANG Yuan, JIA Zhang Ke, TSAI Ming Liang, SUWA Nobuhiro, Shinji AOYAMA, BONG Joon-Ho, Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, Shinya TSUKAMOTO, Darezhan OMIRVAEV, Pedro COSTA, Mahamat-saleh HAROUN, HONG Sang-soo, Lav DIAZ, Denis CÔTÉ, Jean-Marie STRAUB, Claire DENIS, José Luis GUERIN, YING Liang, Edwin, ZHANG Lu, KOBAYASHI Masahiro.