Korea-eng

Korea is the country's name which has originated from an old
Korean state called Koryo and it is not used by Koreans
themselves. As a result of the national devision since the
armistice in the Korean war (1950-1953), two states emerged on
the Korean peninsula with different political, social and economic
systems. In the North, people call their own state Choson and in
the South there is another name of the country which sounds as
Hangook and comes from an old family name Han.
Three clans of Han lived in ancient times on the southern part of
the peninsula. As for Choson, so was called the first Korean
state, which later has got the name Old Choson or Kochoson. The
name Choson is actually Chinese, as it had been used in old
chronicles and was written with two Chinese hieroglyphs:
"morning" and "freshness". That is why Korea is also widely
known as The Land of the Morning Calm.

It is not known how the Korean ancestors used to call their land in their own language because
they hadn't have national writing system based on phonetics. Some historians believe that the
name Choson is a calque for the ancient Korean name Asadal which meant "morning land" or
the place where morning comes earlier.

NORTH KOREA

SOUTH KOREA