South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK) (Korean Korean is the official language of Korea, both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. In the 15th century a national writing system was commissioned by Sejong the Great, currently called Hangul: 대한민국, pronounced [tɛːhanminɡuk̚] ( listen)) and often simply referred to as Korea Korea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait, is a country in East Asia East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about 12,000,000 km2 (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan (also called the East Sea) on the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water. It is neighbored by China b. ^ Information for mainland China only. Hong Kong and Macau are excluded. In addition, the territories under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, are also excluded to the west, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters which make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is to the east, and North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국, Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk), is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. I