The KOSPI fell 10.84% on July 28. In dollars it fell 10.47%. The gap is the won — a position no U.S. investor in Korea has been able to opt out of since 2020.
Only about a dozen Korean companies trade as US ADRs — so most of Korea looks unbuyable from a US account. It isn’t.
Korea’s defense primes — Hanwha Aerospace, Hyundai Rotem, KAI — carry a combined order backlog past ₩111.9tn (~$76B), yet none trades as a US ADR.
KEPCO resumed its dividend after four years: ₩1,540 a share, a 3.2% yield — almost exactly Southern Co’s 3.24%.
In 2026 three doors opened for US investors to buy Korean stocks — SK Hynix’s Nasdaq ADR, direct KRX access via Interactive Brokers, and the EWY ETF.
Korea’s 2026 dividend tax cut is real — but it’s a resident-only, three-year break. Foreign investors’ withholding rate (22%, or 15% by treaty) didn’t…
A Korean retail investor’s true story of holding Samsung through a two-year slump — and the HBM truth the English headlines missed.