In South Korea Christianity is the dominant religion, despite being a late arrival to the peninsula. Over 200 years ago Jesuit missionaries working in China crossed into Korea, bringing their version of Catholicism to the people. Koreans enthusiasm for the faith made the Yi Dynasty feel so threatened that a campaign of persecution was launched against the Jesuits. Protestant missionaries arrived in the 1800s, spreading their faith by practical methods such as establishing schools and hospitals.

Officially, North Korea has no religion as it is considered contrary to to communist ideology. However, as was seen in other communist countries this is no barrier to people retaining their faith. Buddhism, which can be practised individually and in private is the strongest religion in the North.

The people of both North and South Korea are overwhelmingly of a homogeneous Korean background. The evolution of the Korean people goes back more 9000 year with little input from other racial and cultural groupings. The strongest influence came from the Chinese and the Mongols, both of whom held sway over the Korean peninsula at various times over centuries. While there was a strong ethnic Japanese population in Korea during Japan´s occupation from 1910 to 1945, this had minimal effect on Korean culture.

Nobody knows for certain how the Korean language, which is unique to the Korean peninsula, evolved. Spoken Korean is most closely related to Japanese, although even then is has many distinct differences. The syntax is similar to Chinese: however, it does not use tones to discern meanings a Chinese does. Korean writings began 13000 years ago, but initially used Chinese rather than a distinctive Korean style. Hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet, was devised around 500 years ago. For an outside observer Korean script tends to be less complicated than that of Japan or China.

Daily life varies enormously for Koreans depending on which side of the 38th parallel they live. The average North Korean lives a fairly bleak life under an unrelenting communist dictatorship. Where once North Korea was fairly self-sufficient, today it is widespread starvation and malnutrition. Agricultural workers live in communities of collectivised farms. Everyone works to produce food for the rest of the population. Non agricultural work centres primarily on heavy industry, mineral extraction and military service. The state controls all aspects of life. South Korea is vastly different, having a private-enterprise economy, although with some state intervention at various levels. The average South Korean works a full day Monday to Friday and half day on Saturday.

First of all, for property search in Korea, it must be determined whether the property is for buying or for rent. If you choose to buy, then it must be further evaluated whether it is for your accommodation purposes or to rent it out or sell it later for a higher price. In case, if you are planning to buy a property for investment purposes or to rent it, then you must choose a location in Korea that is already developed or with chances to develop.

Both buying and renting options have their own benefits and limitations. For instance, renting may be a great choice when you are planning to stay at a particular location for a short period or when you want to invest your fund in some other options such as share market. But, one of the prime limitations of staying in a rental space is that you cannot make any modification or change in your living space. On the other hand, when you buy a property, you can make almost any change in it, provided you comply with the requirements of local planning.

Purchasing a property in Korea depends upon the financial situation of the buyer. Mostly, people lean on mortgages in order to invest in a property here. Since in most cases your house is kept as collateral in order to get loan, it must be kept in mind that your home is at risk and if you make any default in making the loan repayment, you may sometimes lose your property.

Another important factor that should be taken into consideration for property search as well as investment is capital growth. In most cases, properties appreciate in value by about 5% or 6% per year. However, this may differ from year to year as well as from regions to regions. This is also further affected by such factors as fluctuations in interest rates, political manipulations, and supply and demand factors.

Now we will discuss some of the steps involved in the property search and investment. As the first step, it should be determined in which type of property you prefer to invest. For some it may be residential units in the form of single detached homes, apartments, or villas, while for some it may be commercial or industrial purposes.