100 Fun Facts About South Korea

What is the country's official name?

The North is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; the Korean name Daehan Minguk recalls the short-lived Korean Empire.

Roughly what share of South Korea's 52 million people live in the Seoul metropolitan area?

About half of South Koreans, roughly 26 million of 52 million, live in the Seoul Capital Area of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, one of the most populous metropolitan regions on Earth.

The name "Korea" derives from which historical kingdom?

The Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) unified the peninsula and laid the basis for modern Korean identity.

Which three kingdoms made up Korea's Three Kingdoms period?

Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla shared the peninsula for centuries; Silla, allied with Tang China, conquered Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668, then expelled the Tang by 676.

In which year did King Gojong rename Joseon the Korean Empire?

In 1897 King Gojong renamed the state the Korean Empire, which Japan annexed in 1910.

Which king created the Korean alphabet, Hangul, to promote literacy among ordinary people?

Sejong the Great, fourth king of Joseon, had the alphabet completed in 1443 and promulgated it in 1446 in the Hunminjeongeum so commoners could read without learning Chinese characters.

Hangul Day, a public holiday in South Korea, is celebrated on which date?

Hangul Day falls on 9 October, marking the 1446 promulgation of the Hunminjeongeum; it became a public holiday again in 2013, while North Korea marks its version on 15 January.

Which admiral's "turtle ships" helped halt the Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s?

Admiral Yi Sun-sin's fleet, including armoured turtle ships, cut Japanese supply lines with victories at Hansan Island in 1592 and Myeongnyang in 1597, helping repel Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions.

In which year was the southern zone of the peninsula established as an independent state?

The Republic of Korea was proclaimed on 15 August 1948, three months after a UN-supervised National Assembly election in the south; the North declared its own state on 9 September 1948.

The Korean War ended in 1953 with what?

Fighting ended with an armistice signed at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953; no peace treaty followed, so the two Koreas remained formally at war for decades afterward.

How wide is the Korean Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South?

The DMZ is about 4 km wide, 2 km on either side of the Military Demarcation Line, and runs roughly 250 km across the peninsula; decades without people have made it an accidental wildlife refuge.

The DMZ intersects which line of latitude?

The DMZ crosses the 38th parallel north, dipping south of it in the west and running north of it in the east; the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom lies near its western end.

General Park Chung Hee took power in a coup in which year?

Park Chung Hee seized power in the coup of 16 May 1961 and ruled through an export-led industrial boom until his intelligence chief assassinated him in October 1979.

South Korea's rapid post-war economic transformation is known by what nickname?

The Miracle on the Han River, named for the river through Seoul, describes South Korea's climb from one of the world's poorest countries in 1960 to a major industrial exporter by the 1990s.

The 1987 pro-democracy protests that ended authoritarian rule are known as what?

The June Democratic Struggle of 1987 forced Chun Doo-hwan's government to accept direct presidential elections, producing the Sixth Republic constitution approved by referendum that October.

Which South Korean president won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his "Sunshine Policy" towards the North?

Kim Dae-jung, president from 1998 to 2003, won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize after his Sunshine Policy produced the first inter-Korean summit, with Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in June 2000.

In which year did Seoul host the Summer Olympics?

1988 was Seoul's year; the hosts took 12 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals to finish fourth.

At the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted with Japan, how far did South Korea get?

South Korea reached the semi-finals in 2002, beating Italy and Spain on the way, the first Asian side to make the last four; Germany won 1-0 and the hosts finished fourth.

Which South Korean county hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics?

Pyeongchang County in Gangwon Province hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics, with ice events in nearby Gangneung; they were South Korea's first Winter Games, thirty years after Seoul's 1988 Summer Olympics.

Which Korean fighting art became an official Olympic sport in 2000?

Taekwondo originated in Korea and had its modern rules standardised in the 1950s and 1960s before reaching the Olympics in 2000.

Which game's televised pro league made South Korea the birthplace of esports in the early 2000s?

StarCraft, released by Blizzard in 1998, was broadcast on dedicated Korean cable channels such as OnGameNet, and pro players like Lim Yo-hwan became national celebrities.

Which 2012 song by Psy first pushed K-pop into the global mainstream?

Gangnam Style, released in July 2012, became the first YouTube video to pass one billion views that December and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The 1992 debut of which group is regarded as the turning point that created modern K-pop?

Seo Taiji and Boys debuted on an MBC talent show in April 1992 with 'Nan Arayo', mixing rap and dance with Korean lyrics; their success is treated as the birth of modern K-pop.

In 2020 BTS became the first all-South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100 with which single?

Dynamite, BTS's first all-English single, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2020; the group had debuted under Big Hit Entertainment in 2013.

What does the name BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan, literally mean?

Bangtan Sonyeondan translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts, bangtan meaning bulletproof and sonyeondan boy scouts; in 2017 the seven-member group added the English backronym Beyond the Scene.

Bong Joon-ho's Parasite made history at the 2020 Academy Awards as the first what?

Parasite was the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture, in February 2020; it had already won the 2019 Palme d'Or, making it the first film since Marty (1955) to take both prizes.

How many players compete in the deadly children's games of Squid Game?

Squid Game has 456 players, each worth 100 million won, so the prize is 45.6 billion won; the 2021 series became Netflix's most-watched show within a month of release.

The global boom in music, dramas and film from the country is known by what name?

Hallyu, the 'Korean Wave', was coined by Chinese media in the late 1990s as Korean dramas spread across Asia; the Korean government then made cultural exports part of its development strategy.

What is South Korea's fermented, usually spicy vegetable side dish served at almost every meal?

Kimchi, most often napa cabbage fermented with chili, garlic and salted seafood, appears at nearly every meal alongside other side dishes (banchan) and a bowl of short-grain rice.

Korea is unique among East Asian countries in eating with chopsticks made of what?

Metal chopsticks have been dug up at Goguryeo archaeological sites.

The name of the grilled dish bulgogi literally means what?

Bulgogi means 'fire meat' (bul, fire; gogi, meat): thin marinated slices of beef, sometimes pork, grilled over a flame or on a griddle.

Soju, Korea's best-known spirit, was traditionally distilled from what?

Soju was traditionally distilled from rice; a 1965 ban on distilling grain, meant to save rice, pushed makers to diluted ethanol from sweet potatoes, tapioca and other starches.

Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, falls on the 15th day of which lunar month?

Families return to their ancestral hometowns and eat songpyeon under the full moon.

How many black trigrams surround the taegeuk on the South Korean flag?

Four black trigrams, one in each corner, surround the red-and-blue taegeuk, representing heaven, earth, water and fire; the design dates from 1883 and was standardised by South Korea in 1949.

Which flower, mentioned in the national anthem, is South Korea's national flower?

The rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, is the mugunghwa named in the refrain of the anthem Aegukga; the flower also appears on the national emblem.

South Korea's largest island, about 100 km off its southern coast and with its own endangered dialect, is called what?

Jeju has its own dialect, which UNESCO lists as critically endangered; the island lies about 100 km off the southern coast.

South Korea's highest point, the dormant volcano Hallasan, rises to roughly what height?

Hallasan rises to 1,947 m, roughly 1,950 m, at the centre of Jeju Island; its summit holds the crater lake Baengnokdam.

The Liancourt Rocks, disputed with Japan, are known in South Korea by what name?

South Korea calls the islets Dokdo and has kept a police guard there since the 1950s; Japan calls them Takeshima and maintains its claim, which regularly sours relations.

Samsung, the country's largest conglomerate, was founded in 1938 as what kind of business?

Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung in Daegu in 1938 as a trading company dealing in dried fish, groceries and noodles; it moved into sugar, textiles, insurance and retail before electronics in 1969.

What is the Korean term for the family-controlled conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG?

Chaebol, literally 'wealth clan', denotes Korea's family-controlled conglomerates; zaibatsu, the pre-war Japanese equivalent, is written with the same Chinese characters.

Reforms completed in 2021 cut South Korean army conscription from 21 months to how long?

Army conscription was shortened in stages from 21 to 18 months between 2018 and 2021 under Moon Jae-in's defence reforms; navy conscripts serve 20 months and air force 21.

South Korea's fertility rate, the lowest in the world, hit what figure in 2023?

South Korea's total fertility rate fell to 0.72 in 2023, the lowest recorded by any country; replacement level is about 2.1, and the rate edged up to 0.75 in 2024.

Which is South Korea's largest organised religion?

Christianity is the largest: the 2015 census counted 27.6% of South Koreans as Christian (19.7% Protestant, 7.9% Catholic) against 15.5% Buddhist, with about 56% professing no religion.

Which planned city, launched in 2012, serves as South Korea's de facto administrative capital?

Sejong Special Self-Governing City, named for King Sejong, was carved mainly out of South Chungcheong Province and opened in 2012; most government ministries moved there from Seoul to ease congestion.

In June 2023 South Korea formally abolished which traditional practice?

Korean age reckoning, under which babies were born aged one and everyone aged a year each New Year, was dropped for official purposes on 28 June 2023 in favour of international age.

Which South Korean diplomat was UN Secretary-General from 2007 to 2016?

Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's foreign minister from 2004 to 2006, served two terms as UN Secretary-General from January 2007 to December 2016, succeeding Kofi Annan.

In 2022 Son Heung-min became the first Asian player to win which Premier League award?

Son Heung-min shared the 2021-22 Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah on 23 goals, the first Asian player to win it; he became the highest-scoring Asian player in Premier League history.

Yuna Kim, the first South Korean figure skater to win an Olympic medal, took gold at which Games?

Yuna Kim won gold at Vancouver 2010 with a world-record 228.56 points, then silver at Sochi 2014; she never finished off the podium in her senior career.

Lotte World Tower in Seoul, the tallest building in South Korea, has how many storeys?

Lotte World Tower has 123 storeys and rises 555 metres; when it opened in 2017 it was the fifth-tallest building in the world and the first in South Korea over 100 floors.

In December 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly declared what, leading to his impeachment and removal?

Martial law lasted only hours: the National Assembly voted 190-0 to nullify it, and Yoon was removed from office in April 2025.

Gyeongbokgung, established in 1395, was the first royal palace of which dynasty?

Gyeongbokgung was built in 1395 as the main palace of the new Joseon dynasty, three years after Yi Seong-gye founded it; burned in the 1592 Japanese invasion, it was rebuilt in 1867.

In Korean founding mythology, which legendary figure founded Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom, in 2333 BC?

Dangun is the legendary founder; Gojoseon later controlled the northern peninsula and parts of Manchuria.

Which two US officers proposed the 38th parallel as Korea's dividing line in 1945?

Colonels Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel picked the 38th parallel in about thirty minutes on the night of 10 August 1945 because it kept Seoul in the US zone; they were surprised when the Soviets accepted.

Who won the first presidential election of the newly declared Republic of Korea in 1948?

Syngman Rhee, elected president by the National Assembly on 20 July 1948, had led the Korean Provisional Government in exile in 1919 and was backed by the United States.

Which 1960 student uprising forced President Syngman Rhee to resign?

The April Revolution toppled Rhee, and thirteen months of instability followed before the military coup of 1961.

Chun Doo-hwan's special forces violently suppressed the Gwangju Democratization Movement, at a cost of 500 to 2,000 lives, in which year?

1980 saw the May crackdown; Chun had seized power in a coup the previous December.

Who united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936, founding the dynasty that gave Korea its name?

Wang Geon, posthumously King Taejo, founded Goryeo in 918 and completed unification in 936 after Silla surrendered and Later Baekje fell; he also welcomed Balhae's last crown prince into the royal clan.

Which of Korea's Three Kingdoms has been called the 'Phoenicia of East Asia' for its maritime reach?

Baekje, the south-western kingdom, was a seafaring power whose ships carried Buddhism, Chinese writing and craftsmen to Japan, where it was known as Kudara.

Former president Park Geun-hye was sentenced in April 2018 to how many years in jail?

In April 2018 a Seoul court sentenced Park Geun-hye to 24 years for abuse of power, bribery and coercion; the term was revised on appeal and she was pardoned in December 2021.

Who won the 2025 election to succeed the removed Yoon Suk Yeol, taking office in June?

Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party won the 3 June 2025 snap election and took office the next day; he had lost to Yoon by a record-narrow 0.73 points in 2022.

South Korea grounds planes nationwide for part of one November day each year so noise cannot disturb which event?

The college entrance exam, the Suneung, brings the country to a hush: flights pause for its English listening section and even the stock market opens late that day.

During the Asian financial crisis, about 3.5 million South Koreans handed in what to help repay an IMF loan?

Gold worth about $2 billion, some 227 tons of it, was handed over in early 1998, echoing a 1907 public drive to pay off the Korean Empire's national debt.

Which children's song, recorded by South Korea's Pinkfong, became the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views?

Baby Shark crossed that mark in January 2022. Pinkfong did not write the tune: it had been a camp sing-along for decades and is believed to be in the public domain.

The founder of the South Korean electronics giant Samsung chose a company name with which meaning?

Three stars is the meaning its founder gave: three for something big, numerous and powerful, stars for something everlasting.

South Koreans exchange holiday gift sets of which American product, first spread through US army bases?

Spam spread from US bases during the Korean War, when soldiers bartered it for goods and services; it also anchors budae-jjigae, the spicy 'army base stew'.

Which K-pop girl group made history in 2023 as the first Asian act to headline the Coachella festival?

Blackpink topped the Coachella bill having already become, in 2019, the first female K-pop group to play the California festival at all.

South Korea's women won the team event at ten straight Summer Olympics up to Paris 2024 in which sport?

Archery's women's team event had known no other champion by 2024: South Korea finished first every time from the event's debut at the Seoul Games.

South Korea's Park Ji-sung, the first Asian to play in a Champions League final, spent seven years at which club?

Manchester United signed him from PSV Eindhoven in 2005 after Sir Alex Ferguson, there to assess another player, was struck by how Park moved and found space.

Which poetic nickname for Korea did the American astronomer Percival Lowell use in the title of his 1880s book?

Land of the Morning Calm is a loose reading of the characters in an old dynastic name; Koreans themselves rarely use it, knowing it mainly as a phrase translated back from English.

Which Korean word, meaning 'country of the Han', do South Koreans use for their own country?

Hanguk is not shared across the border: North Koreans use an entirely different name for Korea, taken from an older dynasty, so the two states disagree even on what to call it.

Which currency, whose 50,000 note carries a portrait of the artist Shin Saimdang, is used in South Korea?

The won shares its roots with the Chinese yuan and Japanese yen: all of them were derived from the Spanish-American silver dollar once used across Asian trade.

Which port, South Korea's second most populous city, hosts one of Asia's best-known film festivals each autumn?

Busan lent its older spelling to the Pusan Perimeter, the defensive line UN troops held around the city in August and September 1950.

Lee Sang-hyeok, the South Korean esports player better known as Faker, built his fame in which game?

League of Legends made him the biggest name in competitive gaming, so dominant that he has been compared to the basketball player Michael Jordan.

Hodori, the friendly mascot of the Summer Olympics held in Seoul, was a cartoon version of which animal?

A tiger, and his name says so: 'ho' comes from horangi, the Korean word for the animal, and 'dori' is a masculine diminutive.

Which sport is played in the KBO League, founded in 1982 and South Korea's most popular sports league?

Baseball's KBO is known for exuberant crowds and for the bat flip, a celebration so common that Korean has its own word for it, ppa-dun.

When Japan's rule over Korea ended in 1945, which country's forces occupied the north of the peninsula?

The Soviet Union took the north and the United States the south in what was meant as a temporary arrangement; talks on reuniting Korea broke down as the Cold War set in.

A surprise amphibious landing at which port city turned the Korean War in September 1950, freeing Seoul within weeks?

Incheon's harbour had fast currents and extreme tides, and US Navy leaders wanted a safer site; the gamble paid off, and the largely undefended city fell quickly.

Which American general, commander of UN forces in the Korean War, was dismissed by President Truman in 1951?

Douglas MacArthur had publicly contradicted the administration's policies, and by removing him Truman upheld the principle that the president, not a general, has the last word.

Before turning to cars, Kia built South Korea's first homegrown example of which vehicle in the early 1950s?

A bicycle, the Samchuly, came first: Kia began in 1944 making steel tubing and bike parts, then moved on to licensed Honda motorcycles and Mazda trucks before cars.

Youn Yuh-jung became the first Korean actress to win an Oscar for playing a grandmother in which 2020 film?

Minari follows a Korean immigrant family farming in rural Arkansas; Youn had begun acting on Korean television in the 1960s and made her Hollywood debut with the film.

The 1919 protests against Japanese rule in Korea, launched with a declaration of independence, are known by which name?

The March First Movement spread across Korea and to Koreans abroad, fuelled in part by suspicion that the former emperor Gojong had been poisoned; South Korea marks the date as a national holiday.

Which former village gives its name to the DMZ site where North and South Korean officials meet in blue huts?

Panmunjom's blue buildings straddle the Military Demarcation Line itself, so each one stands partly in the North and partly in the South.

Falling between World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War is often known in the English-speaking world by which nickname?

The Forgotten War drew little public attention abroad, yet about 3 million people died in it, most of them civilians, making it perhaps the deadliest conflict of the Cold War era.

Which Dutch coach was made an honorary South Korean citizen after leading the national team at the 2002 World Cup?

Guus Hiddink was the first person ever given that honour, and his other rewards included free flights for life with the country's two main airlines and free taxi rides.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, athletes from North and South Korea played together as one team in which sport?

Ice hockey's unified women's team played simply as 'Korea', and the folk song Arirang was used for it in place of either country's national anthem.

Which South Korean novelist, author of The Vegetarian, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024?

Han Kang became the first Asian woman to take the prize; The Vegetarian had already made her the first Korean-language winner of the International Booker Prize.

Which Squid Game actor became the first Asian man to win the Emmy for lead actor in a drama series?

Lee Jung-jae won in 2022 for playing Seong Gi-hun; the show's creator said he cast him in order to destroy the charismatic image of his earlier roles.

South Korea asks mapmakers to label the Sea of Japan with which alternative name, often shown in brackets?

The East Sea was first pressed as a name at a UN conference in 1992; Korea had no voice when 'Japan Sea' became the international standard in 1929, being under colonial rule.

Which South Korean director made the revenge thriller Oldboy and the period drama The Handmaiden?

Park Chan-wook made Oldboy as the middle film of his Vengeance Trilogy, and went on to win Best Director at Cannes in 2022 for Decision to Leave.

Which South Korean city, often called 'the museum without walls', was a royal capital for almost a thousand years?

Gyeongju's ancient name, Seorabeol, is believed to have become the Korean word for 'capital city' that in turn gave Seoul its name.

South Korea's Haeinsa temple houses the Tripitaka Koreana, a Buddhist canon carved onto more than 80,000 what?

Woodblocks, kept at the temple since 1398, hold over 52 million characters between them; laid end to end they would stretch about 60 km, and together they weigh 280 tons.

South Korea's Cheomseongdae, a stone tower built under Queen Seondeok in the 600s, is Asia's oldest surviving what?

An observatory for watching the night sky, it may be the oldest of its kind surviving anywhere in the world, not just in Asia.

Which Seoul city gate, long the oldest wooden structure in the capital, was badly damaged by an arsonist in 2008?

Namdaemun, South Korea's first designated National Treasure, took years to restore after the blaze and reopened to the public in May 2013.

Sohn Kee-chung, competing under a Japanese name, became Korea's first Olympic champion at Berlin 1936 in which event?

The marathon victory became a rallying point at home: a Korean newspaper that erased the Japanese flag from his vest in its photograph was suspended for the better part of a year.

Which mountain range runs down South Korea's eastern coast and forms the main ridge of the peninsula?

The Taebaek Mountains fall steeply to the nearby coast but slope gently inland, so the range decides which way the peninsula's water drains.

The South Korean conglomerate Lotte is named after Charlotte, a character in a novel by which German writer?

Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther so impressed founder Shin Kyuk-ho that he took its heroine's name for a business that began by selling chewing gum in post-war Tokyo.

Which city south of Seoul is ringed by Hwaseong Fortress, built in the 1790s to honour an executed crown prince?

Suwon's walls were raised by King Jeongjo for his father, Crown Prince Sado, who had died locked in a chest on the orders of his own father, King Yeongjo.

Which South Korean city is home to both the world's largest car assembly plant and the world's largest shipyard?

Ulsan was a fishing port until the government named it a Special Industrial District in 1962, drawing an oil refinery, Hyundai's car plant and its shipyard.

Which river, the longest in South Korea, passes Daegu and drains the broad basin of the country's southeast?

The Nakdong became a front line in 1950, when its lower course formed the western edge of the last pocket of territory that UN forces were fighting to hold.

South Korea's KTX high-speed trains, which entered service in 2004, were based on a design from which country?

France's TGV beat German and Japanese bids for the contract, and the first KTX trains followed Alstom's TGV Réseau design, with some of them assembled in Korea.