South Korea Trivia
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This South Korea trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers the country from the Three Kingdoms and Sejong the Great's alphabet to the Korean War, the DMZ, the Miracle on the Han River, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 2002 World Cup semi-final and the Korean Wave that gave the world Gangnam Style, BTS, Parasite and Squid Game. It also takes in the food (kimchi, bulgogi, soju, banchan and metal chopsticks), the flag, the national flower, Jeju Island, Hallasan, the chaebol, conscription, the world's lowest fertility rate and the martial-law drama of 2024. The easy questions are ones most people know (the capital, the peninsula's northern neighbour, the martial art that became an Olympic sport). The medium ones ask about Hangul, the armistice, the flag's trigrams and the country's biggest companies. The hard ones want the width of the DMZ, the year Korean age was abolished, the dynasty that gave Korea its name and the admiral behind the turtle ships. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the country's official name?
Republic of Korea
The North is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; the Korean name Daehan Minguk recalls the short-lived Korean Empire.
Q 02Roughly what share of South Korea's 52 million people live in the Seoul metropolitan area?
A half
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.
Q 03The name "Korea" derives from which historical kingdom?
Goryeo
The Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) unified the peninsula and laid the basis for modern Korean identity.
Q 04Which three kingdoms made up Korea's Three Kingdoms period?
Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla
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.
Q 05In which year did King Gojong rename Joseon the Korean Empire?
1897
In 1897 King Gojong renamed the state the Korean Empire, which Japan annexed in 1910.
Q 06Which king created the Korean alphabet, Hangul, to promote literacy among ordinary people?
Sejong the Great
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.
Q 07Hangul Day, a public holiday in South Korea, is celebrated on which date?
9 October
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.
Q 08Which admiral's "turtle ships" helped halt the Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s?
Yi Sun-sin
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.
Q 09In which year was the southern zone of the peninsula established as an independent state?
1948
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.
Q 10The Korean War ended in 1953 with what?
An armistice
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.
Q 11How wide is the Korean Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South?
About 4 km
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.
Q 12The DMZ intersects which line of latitude?
The 38th parallel
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.
Q 13General Park Chung Hee took power in a coup in which year?
1961
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.
Q 21Which game's televised pro league made South Korea the birthplace of esports in the early 2000s?
StarCraft
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.
Q 22Which 2012 song by Psy first pushed K-pop into the global mainstream?
Gangnam Style
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.
Q 23The 1992 debut of which group is regarded as the turning point that created modern K-pop?
Seo Taiji and Boys
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.
Q 14South Korea's rapid post-war economic transformation is known by what nickname?
The Miracle on the Han River
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.
Q 15The 1987 pro-democracy protests that ended authoritarian rule are known as what?
The June Democratic Struggle
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.
Q 16Which South Korean president won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his "Sunshine Policy" towards the North?
Kim Dae-jung
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.
Q 17In which year did Seoul host the Summer Olympics?
1988
1988 was Seoul's year; the hosts took 12 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals to finish fourth.
Q 18At the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted with Japan, how far did South Korea get?
The semi-finals
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.
Q 19Which South Korean county hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics?
Pyeongchang
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.
Q 20Which Korean fighting art became an official Olympic sport in 2000?
Taekwondo
Taekwondo originated in Korea and had its modern rules standardised in the 1950s and 1960s before reaching the Olympics in 2000.
Q 24In 2020 BTS became the first all-South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100 with which single?
Dynamite
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.
Q 25What does the name BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan, literally mean?
Bulletproof Boy Scouts
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.
Q 26Bong Joon-ho's Parasite made history at the 2020 Academy Awards as the first what?
Non-English-language film to win Best Picture
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.
Q 27How many players compete in the deadly children's games of Squid Game?
456
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.
Q 28The global boom in music, dramas and film from the country is known by what name?
Hallyu
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.
Q 29What is South Korea's fermented, usually spicy vegetable side dish served at almost every meal?
Kimchi
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.
Q 30Korea is unique among East Asian countries in eating with chopsticks made of what?
Metal
Metal chopsticks have been dug up at Goguryeo archaeological sites.