The Koreans made their World Cup debut in 1954 – the same year that the AFC was formed – but it would take 32 years for them to score their first goal and a further 16 years to register their first win; a 2-0 victory over Poland in their 2002 FIFA World Cup curtain raiser.
Their impressive run ended in the semi-finals when they lost 1-0 to Germany before they had to settle for fourth after losing 3-2 to Turkey in an entertaining third-place playoff.
Two key players in Korea Republic’s epic 2002 performance Park Ji-sung and Ahn Jung-hwan are the East Asian nation’s leading World Cup scorers with three goals, while Park Chang-sun scored his country’s first World Cup goal when he found the net against Argentina in 1996.
World Cup Fact File:
Previous Appearances:
8 (2010, 2006, 2002, 1998, 1994, 1990, 1986, 1954)
World Cup Debut:
17/06/54, Zurich, versus Hungary
First Scorer:
02/06/86, Park Chang-sun, versus Argentina
Best Performance:
Fourth-place (2002)
Most Goals:
Park Ji-sung and Ahn Jung-hwan (3)
Overall Record:
Overall Record:
PWDLFA
2858152861
Results and Scorers:
Switzerland 1954
Group Stage:
17/06/54
Hungary 9 (Ferenc Puskas 12, 89, Mihaly Fantos 18, Sandor Kocsis 24, 36, 50, Zoltan Czibor 59, Peter Palotas 75, 83)
Korea Republic 0
20/06/54
Turkey 7 (Suat Mamat 10, 30, Lefter Kucukandonyadis 18, Buhran Sargun 37, 64, 70, Erol Keskin 76)
Korea Republic 0
Mexico 1986
Group Stage:
02/06/86
Argentina 3 (Jorge Valdano 6, 46, Oscas Ruggeri 18)
Korea Republic 1 (Park Chang-sun 73)
05/06/86
Korea Republic 1 (Kim Jong-boo 70)
Bulgaria 1 (Plamen Getov 11)
10/06/86
Korea Republic 2 (Choi Soon-ho 62, Huh Jung-moo 83)
Italy 3 (Alessandro Altobelli 17, 73, Cho Kwang-rae 82 og)
Italy 1990
Group Stage:
12/06/90
Belgium 2 (Marc De Grijse 53, Michel De Wolf 64)
Korea Republic 0
17/06/90
Korea Republic 1 (Hwang Bo-kwan 43)
Spain 3 (Michel 23, 61, 81)
21/06/90
Korea Republic 0
Uruguay 1 (Daniel Fonseca 90)
USA 1994
Group Stage:
17/06/94
Spain 2 (Julio Salinas 51, Goikoetxea 55)
Korea Republic 2 (Hong Myung-bo 85, Seo Jung-won 90)
23/06/94
Korea Republic 0
Bolivia 0
27/06/94
Germany 3 (Juergen Klinsmann 12, 37, Karlheinz Riedle 20)
Korea Republic 2 (Hwang Sun-hong 54, Hong Myung-bo 63)
France 1998
Group Stage:
13/06/98
Korea Republic 1 (Ha Seok-ju 27)
Mexico 3 (Ricardo Pelaez Linares 50, Luis Hernandez 75, 84)
20/06/98
Netherlands 5 (Phillip Cocu 37, Marc Overmars 41, Dennis Bergkamp 71, Pierre Van Hooijdonk 78, Ronald De Boer 83)
Korea Republic 0
25/06/98
Belgium 1 (Luc Nilis 7)
Korea Republic 1 (Yoo Sang-chul 72)
Korea/Japan 2002
Group Stage:
04/06/02
Korea Republic 2 (Hwang Sun-hong (26, Yoo Sang-chul 53)
Poland 0
10/06/02
Korea Republic 1 (Ahn Jung-hwan 78)
USA 1 (Clint Mathis 24)
14/06/02
Portugal 0
Korea Republic 1 (Park Ji-sung 70)
Round of 16:
18/06/02
Korea Republic 2 (Seol Ki-hyeon 88, Ahn Jung-hwan 117)
Italy 1 (Christian Vieri 18)
(after extra time)
Quarter-final:
22/06/02
Spain 0
Korea Republic 0
(after extra time, Korea Republic won 5-3 on penalties)
Semi-final:
25/06/02
Germany 1 (Michael Ballack 75)
Korea Republic 0
3rd Place:
29/06/02
Korea Republic 2 (Lee Eul-yong 9, Song Chong-gug 90+3)
Turkey 3 (Hakan Sukur 1, Ilhan Mansiz 13, 32)
Germany 2006
Group Stage:
13/06/06
Korea Republic 2 (Lee Chun-soo 54, Ahn Jung-hwan 72)
Togo 1 (Mohamed Kader 31)
18/06/06
France 1 (Thierry Henry 9)
Korea Republic 1 (Park Ji-sung 81)
22/06/06
Switzerland 2 (Philippe Senderos 23, Alexander Frei 77)
Korea Republic 0
South Africa 2010
Group Stage:
12/06/10
Korea Republic 2 (Lee Jung-soo 7, Park Ji-sung 52)
Greece 0
17/06/10
Argentina 4 (Park Chu-young 17og, Gonzalo Higuain 33, 76, 80)
Korea Republic 1 (Lee Chung Yong 45+1)
22/06/10
Nigeria 2 (Kalu Uche 12, Yakubu Ayegbeni 69)
Korea Republic 2 (Lee Jung-soo 38, Park Chu-young 49)
Round of 16:
26/06/10
Uruguay 2 (Luis Suarez 8, 80)
Korea Republic 1 (Lee Chung-yong 68)