Where it all started

The Pokémon franchise first reached South Korea in 1999, with the first airing of
Pikachu, I Choose You! on the Seoul Broadcasting System. None of the first
generation Pokémon games were released in South Korea, so it was
not until the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver in 2002 that Pokémon
games were released in South Korean stores.

Due to the rocky history between Japan and (South) Korea, Japanese cultural
imports— such as manga, anime, video games, music and movies— had been banned by
the South Korean government since the end of World War 2, and this ban was still
in effect during the releases of Red and Green Versions in Japan in 1996. As such,
most Pokémon-related media of its time never made its way into South Korea,
particularly the first generation games. Likewise, most video game
systems in this period, such as the NES/Famicom and the Game Boy would
not be released by their official Japanese developer (like Nintendo), but by
Korean companies (such as Hyundai) which had licensed the hardware designs for
sale in Korea. Furthermore, the Korean systems would actually be based on their
American counterparts rather than their Japanese ones.


Eventually, South Korean and Japanese relations had warmed up to the point
where the South Korean government's ban on Japanese cultural imports was partially lifted in
October 1998. This in turn helped pave the way for the release of some Pokémon
titles into South Korea. In particular, the Pokémon anime would be first aired
in July 1999, while the Pokémon manga series, Pokémon Adventures Pokémon
Special, would hit bookshelves in August 1999. The first main series game,
however, would be Pokémon Gold and Silver Pocket
Monsters Gum·Eun, which saw a release in April 2002; however, it could only
be played on Hyundai's "Mini Comboy" system (a Game Boy clone which was licensed
to Hyundai), and not on hardware officially released by Nintendo themselves.
Neither Pokémon Crystal nor the Third Generation games
would see a release in South Korea, however, most likely due to the difficulty
of including the Korean language writing system in the games (seeing as it took
about three years for Gold and Silver to be released), as well as the lack of
Game Boy Advance hardware in South Korea at the time.


It was not until January 2004 that the South Korean government completely lift its ban on Japanese cultural
imports. This, in turn, allowed Nintendo to officially operate in South Korea as
Nintendo of Korea
starting on July 2006, with Pokémon Korea, Inc.
beginning its operations a month later. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (known as Pocket
Monsters DP - Dialga • Palkia) would finally be released in February 2008,
finally playable on official Nintendo hardware (the Nintendo DS lite, which was
released in January 2007).


Since then, Pokémon has enjoyed considerable success in South Korea, with all
the different series of games, anime and manga being released consistently and
regularly with their other international counterparts. Pokémon in South Korea
also tends to be more similar to what is released in Japan, as opposed to being
based on the North American version like with Europe and other Commonwealth
nations.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game was officially released in South Korea,
printing cards until EX Power Keepers. Recently, the TCG has been
released again with Series or Volumes 1-10 Currently, the
distributor is Pokémon Korea, Inc.


Unlike the North American set, the booster packs are called Extension Packs,
the decks are called Random Decks, and the promotional pack is called a Special
Set. The borders, colors and layout is the based on the current English
cards.


In 2010, Pokémon Cards from Diamond & Pearl, Platinum,and
HeartGold & SoulSilver were released in South
Korea with text in Korean language.  As of March 2011, there are ten series
(with 40 or 60 cards each), eight theme decks (with 30 cards each) and 22 black
star promotional cards, containing cards selected from a variety of expansion
sets.

The newer sets the Black and White sets are the same as the japanese sets but the release dates are the same as the American and European release dates.

---