Japanese Pirate Raids
From about 1350 Japanese pirates (wokou) raided Goryeo’s coasts and interior year after year; commanders such as Choe Yeong, Choe Mu-seon, Yi Seong-gye and Jeong Ji drove them off, and a new military elite rose in the process.
During Japan’s turbulent Northern and Southern Courts period, pirate bands from Tsushima and elsewhere raided Goryeo hundreds of times over some forty years from 1350. They targeted grain transport ships, halting the tax shipments, emptied coastal villages and struck deep inland, sometimes near Gaegyeong.
Goryeo fought back at Hongsan (1376, Choe Yeong), Jinpo (1380, Choe Mu-seon’s cannon), Hwangsan (1380, Yi Seong-gye) and Gwaneumpo (1383, Jeong Ji), and in 1389 Park Wi struck Tsushima. Generals such as Choe Yeong and Yi Seong-gye made their names in these campaigns.
