Uiryeong County () is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Uiryeong County has a population of 27,550 (2019) and is one of the least populated counties in South Korea.

History

In 1938,

Lee Byung-chull Lee Byung-chul (Korean: 이병철 12 February 1910 – 19 November 1987) was a South Korean businessman. He was the founder of the Samsung Group, which is South Korea's largest chaebol, and he is considered one of South Korea's most successf ...

, a resident of Uiryeong, founded

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

in the nearby city of

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

. On the evening of 26 April 1982, policeman

Woo Bum-kon Woo Bum-kon (or Wou Bom-kon, February 24, 1955 – April 27, 1982) was a South Korean policeman and spree killer who murdered between 56 and 62 people and wounded 33 others in several villages in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province, ...

went on a shooting and bombing rampage through several villages in Uiryeong County, killing 56 people and wounding 35 others in the worst non-terrorist

spree killing A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

in history.

Climate

Transportation

Uiryeong has a convenient location as it sits between Jinju to the west and

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite or Haman the evil) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I ...

Masan Masan is an administrative region of Changwon, a city in the South Gyeongsang Province. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae. Masan was redistricted as two district ...

Changwon Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...

to the East. A bus runs regularly from the bus terminal in Uiryeong-Eup to all major cities in South Korea. A bus journey to Masan or Jinju takes approximately 35 minutes and 45 minutes respectively from Uiryeong bus terminal, while the journey to

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

takes 1 hour. It is also possible to take a bus directly to

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

from Uiryeong. The biggest problem in terms of transportation is that the intercity buses stop running to Uiryeong from the nearby cities fairly early in the evening. The last bus from Busan is 6:40 PM, from Jinju, it's 7:30 PM and from Masan, it's 9:00 PM.

Sister cities

Uiryeong is twinned with: *

Sacheon Sacheon () is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Sacheon's chief fame comes from its being the site of two naval battles in the Seven Year War. The city as it now exists results from the merging of Sacheon-gun and Samcheonpo-si in ...

Muan Muan County (''Muan-gun'') is a county in South Jeolla Province (''Jeollanam-do''), South Korea. In 2005, Muan County became the capital of ''Jeollanam-do'' following the transfer of the provincial office from its previous location, Gwangju to th ...

Yongsan-gu Yongsan District (, ) is one of the 25 List of districts of Seoul, districts of Seoul, South Korea. Yongsan has a population of 231,685 (2020) and has a geographic area of , and is divided into 19 ''Dong (administrative division), dong'' (adminis ...

Uiseong Uiseong County (''Uiseong-gun'') is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, South Korea. Located near the center of the province, it is bounded by Andong on the north, Cheongsong on the east, Gunwi County o ...

Liaocheng Liaocheng (), is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southeast, Dezhou to the northeast, Tai'an to the south, and the provinces of Hebei and Henan to the west. The Grand ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

References

External links