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The VPNs in the rating are the best ones for South Korea. Thanks to these apps, you won’t be subjected to prosecutions for the statements about protests posted on your social media account.
Recommendation: If you are looking for a way to bypass the restrictions imposed by the government in South Korea, it’s necessary to subscribe to one of the VPNs you’ll read about in this article. All of them work in the country. But not all of them as cross-functional as wished it to be. Read brief reviews and find the one that will meets all your demands.
South Korea, like many other countries, regulates internet access to prevent the spread of prostitution and illegal gambling. All pro-North Korea sites, blogs, and social media accounts are blocked, of course. 37% of all internet content undergoes censorship in South Korea.
While this long list of restrictions may make sense on paper, it is not necessarily so when practice. For example, South Koreans cannot access Google Map data for their own country because of a law prohibiting the distribution of maps when the country is at war (South Korea is technically at war with North Korea).
South Koreans also have little privacy online, as government spies are constantly monitoring comments and posts for North Korean sympathizers.
The year of 2007 became crucial for many bloggers, as many of them were censored and arrested. Their posts on the Internet were deleted by the police. In this connection, big internet platforms required the identity verification of their users one year later.
In such a way, the use of a VPN in South Korea is a desperate measure for netizens who search for privacy and freedom online.
All tests were carried out in 2022. And after numerous speed and security tests, I’ve chosen the leader – ExpressVPN. Apart from fast servers around the globe, it offers access to blacklisted sites. And all these in full anonymity.
Comparison of the main features of VPN services to use in South Korea
| Service | Ranking (out of 10) | Stealth level (out of 10) |
Speed, Mbps | Country selection | Number of servers | Price (monthly) |
| ExpressVPN | 10 | 9 | >100 | 94 | 3000+ | $6.67-12.95 |
| NordVPN | 10 | 10 | >60 | 59 | 5700+ | $3.30-11.95 |
| Surfshark | 10 | 10 | >50 | 63 | 1700+ | $2.49-12.95 |
| CyberGhost | 9 | 9 | 40-70 | 90 | 6000+ | $2.25-12.99 |
| PIA | 9 | 10 | >50 | 45 | 3300+ | $2.69-9.95 |
Main advantages
Thanks to stable connections and advanced features of ExpressVPN, you can do anything you like online: stream video without limits, access blacklisted websites, download torrents anonymously in South Korea.
The process of the ExpressVPN app setup is dead easy. You are to open its official site, create an account, choose and pay for subscription, download and run the app.
The table lists the ExpressVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 1 year | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.95 | $9.99 | $6.67 |
| Money-back guarantee (days) | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Payment options: PayPal, Credit Cards, Bitcoin, and other alternative methods.
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Main advantages
After the last update (June 12), I’ve noticed improve performance and stability. Now I can choose from my ‘Recents’ to connect to the server I used some time ago. Quite convenient.
Thanks to the obfuscation function, you’ll manage to bypass any restrictions in South Korea as well as in the neighboring countries like China. Thus it’s won’t be a problem to unblock any Kodi addon or torrent site.
The table lists the NordVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 3 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $11.95 | $4.92 |
$3.29 (2022 Winter promotion) |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Payment options: PayPal, Credit Cards, Cryptocurrency, and others.
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Main advantages
I like Surfshark VPN for its high-quality service and attractive prices. It’s allowed to make use of its static IPs in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK, and the US. The MultiHop feature serves to make Surfshark users 100% anonymous, as it helps to double back your activity on the Internet.
I usually recommend to enable the functions of auto-connect and kill switch to make your device protected at any time.
The table lists the Surfshark plans and prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.95 | $6.49 | $2.49 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Payment options: PayPal, Credit Cards, Sofort, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Cryptocurrency, and others.
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Main advantages
CyberGhost is on the list of the best VPNs for South Korea because of its NoSpy servers. They serve to hinder your virtual traces to that no one could know about your browsing history. Also, while switching between the servers you can unblock restricted content inside the country.
It gets better. The provider allows P2P and makes it protected against the prying eyes.
The table lists the CyberGhost VPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | 3 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.99 | $3.99 | $3.49 | $2.25 |
| Money-back guarantee | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
There’s an option to add a dedicated IP. Its monthly cost is $5 (for 1 IP).
Payment options: PayPal, Credit Cards, and Cryptocurrency.
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Main advantages
After installing PIA VPN, I’ve enabled the ‘Connect on Launch’ function. I recommend you do the same you don’t want to be monitored in South Korea. For your security, it’s also possible to block the domains used for ads, trackers, and malware by switching on ‘PIA MACE’ – perfect invention!
The table lists the PIA plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $9.95 | $3.33 | $2.69 |
| Money-back guarantee | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Payment options: PayPal, Credit Cards, and Bitcoin.
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If you cannot pay for the service right now, you can make use of VPNs that a offer free trial. This period usually lasts for 1-7 days.
Alternatively, you opt for a free VPN. The ones I’ve picked over for South Korea are either 100% free or offer a free package.
Warning: Despite all the pluses of a free VPN, it has significant minuses: restrictions in speed, traffic, bandwidth, and servers. Besides, free VPNs often show ads, and free plans have a limited number of functions.
Main qualities
I’ve chosen ProtonVPN as the number 1 for South Korea due to its medium speed, no ads, and strict no-logs policy. However, there is no P2P protocols support. Besides, not all restricted content can be unblocked because of the limited number of servers.
Main qualities
One more VPN that I recommend for users in South Korea is Windscribe. Although it has restricted traffic, the provider resets the bandwidth every 30 days for the users with the confirmed email address.
Main qualities
The speed is really fast for South Korea. But I don’t like the traffic restriction. 500MB is not enough for a month. However, there’s a way-out – you’ll get 1GB more if you share a tweet about the provider)
Main qualities
A good VPN to make your browsing history hidden from the prying eyes in South Korea. 10GB is enough for many tasks – streaming, web surfing. However, it’s not enough for torrenting. In this case, it’s better to subscribe to a VPN for torrenting.
Main qualities
The VPN is quite easy to use. I like it most of all on my smartphone – quick connect, easy access to servers. However, the speed is not so good as for its paid version.
Yes. Despite its internet censorship, it’s absolutely legal to use VPNs in the country. There’s no punishment for such activity.
The answer depends on what you are going to do with proxy. If you want to change your location and security is not important for you, you can use a proxy. However, if you want to make your online activity protected or want to unblock Hulu library, it’s recommended to use a VPN.
The local ISPs block access to sites that highlight gambling, prostitution, porn site, and some sources related to North Korea. At the same time, access to streaming services can be also restricted.
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Leave a comment
I never tried anything to hide my identity to use the internet in South Korea free. Our local laws are very strict and we are monitored all the time. It’s good for me that I know English quite well, so a found this article with the best VPNs for South Korea reviews. Now I know enough to accomplish my dream. I want to become an active gamer, but it is hardly possible, as many, very many things in my country are blocked. I was ready to refuse my dream, as my account in one of the social networks was blocked several times. I promise to write here again after trying to access the internet again with one of the VPNs. To tell you the truth, I’m still hesitating, what VPN to choose, as they all a great (at least, I’ve understood it by means of the description. I hope it’s true
Hi Ye-jun! The best VPN services for South Korea are presented in this article. All of them serve to bypass local restrictions efficiently. To find the best VPN provider for you personally, you are to pay attention to the following features: price (what can you afford); number of IPs (essential for those who want to brows without restriction); unlimited bandwidth and speed (a must for users who want to be protected all the time); compatibility with various operating systems (be sure that the VPN is compatible with the device’s OS you are going to protect); number of devices per 1 VPN account (some VPNs allow connection of up to 6 devices per 1 account).
I neither live in South Korea, nor want to travel there. But this article caught my eye immediately, as I never thought that there are such serious problems in this democratic place. The info presented here arose my cognitive interest not only to the issue of security but to the similar problems in other countries, as I like travelling. Thank you and be sure you’ve got one more regular reader. Now I see how important it is to think about online security before doing this or that action.
Samuel, be convinced, if you follow all the tips offered by our specialists, you will never fall into a trap on the Internet. In order to be better informed about the events occurring in this sphere, read our “News” section regularly. Besides, it is recommended to study CoolTechZone's “Guides” section to become aware of the main security issues and advice.
