Conflicting info about visa-free South Korea countries?

Question

I was wondering which countries are OK for visa-free tourism to South Korea. Particularly just USA and UK.

Strangely, I found it hard to find decisive information!

Click here -

https://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TRV/TV_ENG_2_1.jsp

Notice it does not (!) list United Kingdom in the "Designated Countries.." box.

Conversely click here -

https://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/en/info/popup/icis/VisaWaiver_pop.htm

Notice it does not list the USA (!)

Further: in fact it's really unclear to me if thes are official Korean government -supplied web sites?

Specific Questions

1. Where exactly is the most official web page from some part of the Sth Korean government, showing the list of visa-free tourism countries? As of April 2019 specifically.¹

2. Is it absolutely a fact that both USA and UK are visa-free? (I guess, we'd have to know (1) to have the answer to (2), unless someone has another absolutely-certain information route.)

3. Ideally as well as the USA/UK facts, I'd like the exact complete list (per April 2019), but I guess that would come from (1) also.

My googlefu is pretty good but I've completely drawn a blank on this basic quest! :O

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¹ I guess there could conceivably be some hoo-ha in relation to Brexit?

Answer 1

It's because they fall under different sections of Korean immigration laws.

You may see the complete list of visa-free countries and the reasons at https://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/InfoDetailR_en.pt?categoryId=2&parentId=385&catSeq=401&showMenuId=375

go.kr is the second level domain for the Korean government.

About Hi Korea from its site:

Hi Korea(http://www.hikorea.go.kr)is the main site of the electronic government for foreigners, jointly created by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Ministry of Labor. It was created with the purpose of providing investment, employment, residence, and everyday living related information and services from a single source to foreigners visiting Korea.

In particular, 107 countries, including the UK, have a bilateral visa-waiver agreement. And 48 other countries, including the USA, are visa-free under some other reason. (The web site didn't specify here which of several possible reasons it was, and for a traveler it's unlikely to be important.)

Answer 2

Do you mean which countries a South Korean citizen can visit, without a visa? Wikipedia has an article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_South_Korean_citizens which lists the visa requirements for S Koreans, for each country. The list should be up-to-date, but it would be wise to check with the countries you are interested in visiting.

There is also the reverse article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_South_Korea which gives the visa requirements for visiting South Korea.