The name the Hermit Kingdom was earned by Korea in the eighteenth century after it attempted to isolate itself following centuries of being a target for domination, occupation, and plunder, or occasionally simply a route on the way to somewhere else. If you come from the north, then once you are over the Yalu River there are few major natural defensive lines all the way down to the sea, and if you can land from the sea, the reverse is true. The Mongols came and went, as did the Chinese Ming dynasty, the Manchurians, and the Japanese several times. So for a while the country preferred not to
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