People could now purchase yangban status by paying to procure lower government posts or "jokbo(족보)" , the noble pedigree. Nearly all yangban of upper-high ranking grandee to lower-ranking provincial landlord status suddenly lost their ancient political, social and economic power during the twentieth century. The legality of yangban was abolished in 1894. Subsequently their political and administrative role was replaced by Japanese colonial government and its administrators, although some yangban maintained their wealth and power by cooperating with the Japanese. However, the erosion of an idea of complete and exclusive power was irreversible. Many yangban families lost their estates as land became a marketable commodity. This economic debasement gained a tremendous force during the Korean War when land ownership was disturbed in an unprecedented scale. When South Korea began its new government after the war, yangban were mostly extinct and powerless, which is one reason the South Korean government was relatively free from landed interests. President Syngman Rhee had "rehired" the yangban to hold positions in the new government during the late 1940s. He made this decision to bring them back to start the government off on a good footing, by using those who were already familiar with lawmaking and administration. However, his effort came to none when the war broke out in 1950. After this decade the country was to be dominated by the military and industrial magnates. In modern-day Korea, the yangban as a social class with legal status and landed wealth, no longer exists, in the north or the south. Nevertheless, those who are well-connected in Korean society are sometimes said to have "yangban" connections. Though these claims may have some merit, such references are not usually intended to suggest any real yangban lineage or ancestry. (Many descendants of the yangban class live today. As the changing fortunes of that class rendered many individuals of "former" yangban status, it is not a stretch to assume that many, if not most, Koreans have at least some connection to the yangban class, if not any direct descent. In addition, the acquisition or theft of clan lineage records or jokbo during tumultuous times in Korea's history has thrown doubt on some claims of yangban descent.) Today, the yangban have been replaced by the Korean ruling class, i.e., an elite class of business and government elites, who dominate the country through their wealth, power and influence channeled through their familial and social networks.