The Han River has played a central role in Korean history from the earliest times. The kingdom of Baekje was the first to lay claim to the Han River, recognizing its strategic significance, as a primary waterway linking the central western region of the peninsula with the Yellow Sea as well as for the river's fertile alluvial banks, a relative rarity on the mountainous peninsula. Namhan Fortress, located south of Seoul, is posited as an early capital of Baekje. It was not long before the region near the effluence of the Han River with the Yellow Sea, around present day Seoul, became a bone of contention between Baekje and the rising kingdom of Goguryeo. During the reign of its King Jangsu (r. 413-491) Goguryeo wrested the western terminus of the Han River from its rival Baekje. The ensuing decades would see a tug of war over the region until 551 when Baekje, in an alliance with Silla, confirmed its control over the Han River basin. But this alliance was not to last, and in 553 Silla broke its alliance with Baekje to seize control of the entire river as part of its bid for domination of the peninsula.
With the demise of both Baekje and Goguryeo and then the unification of the peninsula under Silla in 668, the Han River entered its long era as a "Korean river", first under the control of Unified Silla (668-918), then of the succeeding Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), and finally as part of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). During the Joseon period the Han River achieved new prominence as the primary waterway of the new Korean capital of Seoul, then called Hanyang.
Syngman Rhee and his wife posing with Army Corps of Engineers personnel in 1950 at the Han River Bridge
During the Korean war, in an attempt to slow the North Korean approach, the South Korean military destroyed the Han Bridge, along with the hopes of thousands of citizens of escape.
The Han River now belongs largely to the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, with its effluence in the Yellow Sea a few nautical miles from North Korea (though some of the river's tributaries are in North Korea). During the first few decades of South Korea's existence the Han River became a byword for pollution, as burgeoning industry and an impoverished populace used it as a convenient spillway for industrial and urban refuse. Though it no longer plays a central role in commerce or transportation it is a prime fixture in the life of the South Korean capital and in the last decade has become the focus of government sponsored environmental efforts to clean it up and transform it into an ecological jewel of the capital. During the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, the Han River was the site of the Olympic rowing regatta.
There have been fears, such as the 1986 Water Panic in South Korea, that North Korea could attack Seoul by releasing a flood from the upstream dam.[11]
In July 2000, the US military admitted to dumping 20 gallons (75.7 liters) of the highly toxic chemical formaldehyde in the river from one of their bases in Seoul. As the river serves as a drinking source for some 12 million Koreans, Koreans launched large protests and accused the US military of ignoring South Korea's environmental regulations. Activists lobbed toy rockets—filled with water from the river—into the main US Army base. The political party Green Party Korea had earlier accused the US of dumping nearly 60 gallons of the toxic chemical into the river, and said that "... if people are exposed to the chemical for a long period of time, it could cause lung cancer [and when] dissolved into water, it could kill fish and other aquatic creatures."[12][13]
From 2009 the Lee Myung Bak administration resuscitated a project to dig a canal linking the Han River with the Yellow Sea at Incheon. This eighteen kilometer Ara Canal was completed in 2011[citation needed] and now links the Han River near Gimpo in Seoul to Incheon. It can accommodate both large container and passenger vessels.
Hàn River bridge is a bridge in Da Nang, Vietnam. Da Nang lies on the west side of the Hàn River and the beaches are to the east.
In the middle of the night, traffic is stopped from crossing the Song Han Bridge and it swings on its axis to allow shipping traffic to pass along the river. The Song Han Bridge in Danang is a cable-stayed bridge that is lit up brightly at night. The area around the bridge is the location of Da Nang's cultural center.
