Abstract
From the first half of the 13th century to the end of the 16th century, Japanese pirates waegu 倭寇 controlled the waters of the East, Yellow, and East China Seas. Around the same time, the pirates started to attack the Korean kingdom of Koryǒ 高麗 (998-1392).
After the fall of the Mongol empire, pirate activity, driven by political events in Japan, rose rapidly. Aside from terrorizing the inhabitants, pirates also controlled sea routes, attacked commercial and tributary envoys, and regularly raided coastlines.
Moreover, they were a significant factor in international politics. This article deals with the raids of the waegu pirates on Koryǒ in the second half of the 14th century.
It aims to describe the consequences of pirate raids within the context of Korean history and to validate that the waegu were a significant factor causing the fall of Koryǒ.