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Following the partition of Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War, the percent of foreigners in South Korea has risen to 3.4%, or about two million of the total population (half of them Chinese, with Americans and Vietnamese tied for second place at around 150,000 or 6-7% of total). North Korea largely remains ethnically homogeneous with a small Chinese expatriate community and a few Japanese migrants.
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History
King Gojong called foreigners "uneducated louts," motivated by "lechery and sensuality." The Joseon Dynasty was widely referred to as a "hermit kingdom" for sealing itself off from foreign influence. Joseon diplomacy mainly involved the Sadae ("serving the great") policy toward Imperial China. Concurrently maintained (and jointly referred to as "serving the great and relations with neighbor policy" Hangul: 사대교린 정책; Hanja: 事大交隣政策) was the Gyorin policy of amicable relations with neighbouring countries; however this did not result in significant influx of foreign persons but rather sporadic trade delegations and diplomatic missions: envoys from the Ryūkyū Kingdom were received by Taejo of Joseon in 1392, 1394 and 1397. Siam sent an envoy to Taejo's court in 1393.
The Joseon kingdom made every effort to maintain a friendly bilateral relationship with China for reasons having to do with both realpolitik and a more idealist Confucian worldview wherein China was seen as the center of a Confucian moral universe. In the fifth through tenth centuries, Arabs sailed the Indian Ocean, and Arab merchants and sailors eventually landed in Korea during the Silla dynasty. These contacts eventually broke off starting in the 15th century, resulting in the Arabs' eventual assimilation into the Korean population.
North Korea
The foreign relations of North Korea are often tense and unpredictable. The number of foreign residents is correspondingly very small, and is essentially limited to Japanese spouses of "repatriating" Zainichi Koreans, expatriates from the People's Republic of China, foreign diplomats, and a few defectors such as James Joseph Dresnok and Joseph T. White.
South Korea
South Korea is among the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations, i.e. those with absolute majority of the population of one ethnicity. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, South Korea has been far more open to foreign, especially American, influence than North Korea.
There were 1,741,919 total foreign residents in Korea in 2015, compared to 1,576,034 in 2013. As of September 2015, according to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, the foreign population in South Korea, including migrant workers, increased to 1.8 million, accounting for 3.4% of the total population.
The biggest group of foreigners in Korea have always been the Chinese. In 1970, an estimated 120,000 Chinese resided in South Korea. However, due to economic restrictions by the South Korean government, the number may have fallen to as low as 21,000. In the 10-year period starting in the late 1990s, the number of Chinese in Korea exploded. In mid 2000s it was estimated that there are at least 300,000 and possibly more than 1,000,000 In 2009 it was estimated there are about 450,000 Chinese Koreans. Chinese citizens living in South Korea as permanent residents or illegal immigrants, including Joseonjok (Hangul: 조선족; Hanja: 朝鮮族, Chinese citizens of Korean descent) and Han Chinese. There is a large Chinese community in Seoul's southwestern area (Daerim/Namguro) and a smaller but established community in Seongnam. Ethnic Chinese in Korea are known as Hwagyo (Hangul: 화교; Hanja: 華僑) by the Koreans.
There second biggest group of foreigners in South Korea are migrant workers from Southeast Asia and increasingly from Central Asia (notably Uzbekistan, mostly ethnic Koreans from there, and Mongolians), and in the main cities, particularly Seoul, there is a small but growing number of foreigners related to business and education.
The number of marriages between Koreans and foreigners has risen steadily in the past few years. In 2005, 14% of all marriages in South Korea were marriages to foreigners (about 26,000 marriages); most were rural Korean men marrying other Asian women from poor backgrounds. Korean men in age brackets up to their 40s outnumber slightly younger Korean women, both due to a high sex ratio and the drop in the birth rate since the 1960s, leading to a huge demand for wives. Many Korean agencies encourage 'international' marriages to Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipina, Indonesian, and Thai women, adding a new degree of complexity to the issue of ethnicity.
The number of expatriate English teachers hailing from English-speaking nations has increased from less than 1,000 in 1988 to over 20,000 in 2002, and stood at more than 22,000 in 2010. There are 28,500 United States military personnel and civilian employees throughout the country, an increasing number of whom are also accompanied by family members.
Most Koreans still believe that their population is of a single racial bloodline, and Korean media sometimes create the impression that foreigners are dangerous, including requiring HIV/AIDS tests for non-ethnic Korean foreigners who work in South Korea.
Statistics
Number of foreign residents in South Korea up to 2016.
Nationalities of legal foreign immigrants in South Korea as of August 2016.