King Gongmin ruled Goryeo (Korea) from 1351 until 1374. Hangul is the native alphabet used to write the Korean language, as opposed to the Hanja system borrowed from China. ... Hanja (lit. ... The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. ... McCune-Reischauer is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced McCune-Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. ... The Goryeo (also Koryo) kingdom ruled Korea from the fall of Silla in 935 until the founding of Joseon in 1392. ... Korea is a formerly unified country, situated on the Korean Peninsula in northern East Asia, bordering on China to the west and Russia to the north. ... Events End of the reign of Emperor Suko of Japan, third of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders Start of the reign of Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan, fourth of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders May 1 Zürich joins the Swiss Confederation. ... Events King Gongmin is assassinated and King U ascends to the Goryeo throne Births Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey. ...

Following the repulsion of the Mongol forces that had occupied the whole of the Korean peninsula since 1238, King Gongmin began efforts to reform its government. His first act was to remove all pro-Mongol aristocrats and military officers from their positions. These deposed people formed a dissident faction which plotted an unsuccessful coup against the king. Honorary guard of Mongolia. ... The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. ... Events In the Iberian peninsula, James I of Aragon captures the city of Valencia September 28 from the Moors; the Moors retreat to Granada. ...

A second internal problem was the question of land holdings. The land-grant system had broken down, and Mongol-favoured officials, along with a handful of landed gentry, owned the vast majority of agricultural land, which was worked by tenant farmers and bondsmen. King Gongmin's attempt at land reform was met with opposition and subterfuge from those officials who were supposed to implement his reforms, however, as they were landowners themselves.

Another problem was that the Japanese pirates who had been troubling the peninsula for some time were no longer hit-and-run bandits, but had become well-organised military marauders that raided deep into the country. Generals Choi Yong and Yi Seonggye were called upon by King Gongmin to combat them. Choi Yong (1316-1388) was born in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, in Goryeo (modern-day Korea). ... King Taejo of Joseon (original name Yi Seong-gye, 이성계(李成桂) was the founder and the first king of Koreas Joseon Dynasty. ...

Goryeo's entrenched bureaucracy never forgave King Gongmin for his reform efforts. They interpreted his policy of cutting all ties with the Yuan and establishing relations with Ming China as a direct threat to their status and feared that further attempts at reform might yet be made. Kaesong's deposed pro-Mongol faction battled to protect its position and hoped to renew ties with the Mongols who had helped them gain and hold their wealth in the first place. The disgruntled influential landowners took on an ugly character in 1374, when a military hero and high official named Yi In-Im led a small yet powerful anti-Ming faction that assassinated King Gongmin, replacing him with the eleven-year-old King U. Yuan (TC:元 or 圓; SC:元 Pinyin yuán WG yüan) is, in Chinese, the base unit of a currency, for example, US dollar is Mei yuan (美元). ... The Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: míng cháo) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, though claims to the Ming throne (now collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662. ... Kaesŏng (Gaeseong) is a city in North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty. ... King U was born in 1363, and ruled Goryeo (Korea) from 1374 until 1388. ...

It was during the reign of King Gongmin that a Goryeo diplomat stationed in China named Mun-Ik-Jom managed to smuggle cotton seeds back into Goryeo, introducing them to the Korean peninsula for the first time. Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ...

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
• Rulers of Korea