Here are 40 Interesting South Korea facts.
1-5 South Korea Facts
1. Any North Koreans that escape to South Korea are automatically granted citizenship upon arrival. – Source
2. In South Korea, only visually impaired people can be licensed masseurs, dating back over 100 years to a Japanese colonial rule set up to guarantee the blind a livelihood. – Source
3. South Koreans have grown 3 inches taller than their North Koreans counterparts. They are genetically the same and have been living similar lives till divide in the last century. The nutritional difference of only 50/60 years has caused this difference. – Source
4. In South Korea, men who win Olympic medals do not have to participate in the two-year-long mandatory military service. – Source
5. In an effort to reduce the high number of suicides on South Korea’s Mapo Bridge, it was unofficially renamed the Bridge of Life. It was decorated with positive affirmations and even sympathetic sculptures. Suicides increased sixfold the following year. – Source
6-10 South Korea Facts
6. Samsung has built a sentry gun which sits in the Demilitarised Zone between South and North Korea, which is hostile to anyone it senses who cannot provide an authorized access code. – Source
7. In 2014, South Korean Christians put up a Christmas tree visible from the North Korean Border. North Korea responded by calling it a “tool for psychological warfare” and threatened to bomb it. – Source
8. When North Korea sank a South Korean Warship in 2010, South Korea responded by blasting the hit K-Pop song “Hit your heart” across the border using large military loudspeakers. – Source
9. In 1953, a North Korean fighter pilot defected to South Korea with his MiG-15 and was rewarded $100,000 from the United States. – Source
10. Cheating and creating cheats for online games is officially a crime in South Korea. – Source
11-15 South Korea Facts
11. After 2 US officers were killed while trying to cut down a tree in the DMZ, South Korea and the US sent 813 soldiers, 27 helicopters and nuclear-capable bombers to the DMZ to supervise the cutting down of the tree. North Korean soldiers watched in silence as the tree was cut down in 42 minutes. – Source
12. During negotiations for a truce between North and South Korea, both parties would try to bring a bigger national flag than the other to each meeting. This continued until a special meeting was called to address the size of the flags, as they could no longer fit in the room. – Source
13. Singapore is the only country on earth whose citizens don’t need a Visa to enter South Korea. – Source
14. South Korea, despite having completed the transition to digital broadcast (ATSC) in 2012, still maintains analog broadcast near its borders for North Koreans watching South Korean TV in secret. – Source
15. An Irish woman was denied for a teaching job in South Korea, citing the “alcoholism nature” of Irish people as a reason for rejection. – Source
15-20 South Korea Facts
16. In the 70’s South Korea discovered 4 tunnels from North Korea, believed to be incursion routes capable of accommodating 30,000 men per hour. It is believed that there is up to 20 more, undiscovered. – Source
17. Adopting is considered taboo in Korea and because of this, South Korea’s orphans are almost never adopted unless a foreigner adopts them. – Source
18. In South Korea, there is a day called Black Day (April 14), where single people eat noodles to lament their loneliness. This is in opposition to Valentine’s Day and White Day, the days for couples. – Source
19. Over 23% of South Korean men lost their virginity to a prostitute. – Source
20. Dunkin Donuts in South Korea started spraying coffee aroma into public buses every time their jingle played. Coffee sales increased 29%. – Source
21-25 South Korea Facts
21. In 1991, World Table Tennis Championships South and North Korea participated as a unified team under the name “Korea” to beat the “unbeatable” Chinese team. – Source
22. South Korea’s national drink is soju, a clear alcohol, typically made from rice or barley, with an alcohol content of about 20 percent and a government-mandated price of about $1 per bottle, so all citizens can afford it. – Source
23. Microsoft Kinect sensors protect the Korean Demilitarized Zone for South Korea. They’re more accurate than other sensors which would occasionally give false alarms from falling leaves. – Source
24. There are more fried chicken restaurants in South Korea than there are McDonald’s restaurants worldwide. – Source
25. South Korea has a “Cinderella Law” that forbids children under the age of 16 to play online video games from 12:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. to prevent them from excessive “Internet addiction”. – Source
