A set of photographs taken in Korea during the late 19th and early 20th century has been revealed in the U.S.<br />Some of them include never-before-seen images of key figures in Korea's history.<br />Our Yim Yoon-hee has more. <br />The fifth son of Korea's Emperor Gwangmu, Prince Yi Kang, lived during a tumultuous time in Korean history, during the First Sino-Japanese War.<br />This recently discovered shot is one of the earliest pictures of the prince, taken in 1899 when he left to study abroad in the United States. <br /><br />Another photograph is of Heungseon Daewongun , known to some Westerners as Prince Gung.<br />He served as regent of the Joseon Dynasty while King Gojong was a minor during the 1860s.<br />The picture on the right, believed to be of him in his 40s, shows a much younger version of him.<br /><br />Seo Jae-pil, also known as Philip Jaisohn, was a leader in Korea's fight for independence, even putting together the doomed Gapsin Coup to oust the Joseon-era leadership.<br />He was the first Korean to receive U.S. citizenship and this new picture on the left shows a young 23-year-old Seo, taken in 1887.<br /><br />Another leader of the failed Gapsin Coup was Park Yeoung-ho. This rare image of the Korean politician at 25, before his involvement with the enlightenment movement of Korea. <br /><br />And lastly, Kim Ok-gyun, a reformist during the late Joseon Dynasty. <br />The image on the left shows him at 35 years old, and though there are many black-and-white photos of him, this is the first known color photograph of Kim.<br /><br />And while these pictures reveal a small piece of Korea's history, musician Hwang Byung-ki holds on to history in his own way. <br />For decades, he's been a master of the gayageum, one of Korea's most popular traditional Korean instruments.<br />And now, a new book about Hwang, compiled by English scholar Andrew Killick over 25 years, has recently been published in Korean.<br />Yim Yoon-hee, Arirang News.
