Anti-north Korean sentiment or Koryophobia describes negative feelings towards Korean people, Korean culture, or the countries of North Korea or South Korea. It can even refer to feelings between Korean groups, especially between North and South Korea, or between Koreans on the Korean peninsula and the Korean diaspora.
Anti-Korean sentiment has varied by location and time. Major historical events that impacted it include the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In recent years, sentiment has largely been impacted by politics, territorial disputes, disputes over claims of historical revisionism, economic competition, and culture.
Anti-Korean sentiment is particularly prevalent in China, Japan, the United States, and between the two Korean states. The Korean Wave has also sparked a pushback in some countries. In other countries, Koreans have either been the target of racism because they are members of a specific ethnic group or they have been the target of racism against Asians in general. Various slurs for Koreans also exist, including slurs which Koreans describe other Koreans with.
Statistics
China
Korea and China have historically maintained complicated ties. When Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1910, it fell under Japanese influence. In China it is believed that some ethnic Koreans served in the Imperial Japanese Army whose invasion of China launched the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937. Adding to this sentiment is the allegation that some Koreans reportedly operated the Burma-Siam Death Railway. The Chinese referred to Koreans using the slur er guizi ().
At the end of World War II, North Korea, which was aligned with the Soviet bloc, became an ally of the People's Republic of China (PRC), while the PRC and the Republic of Korea did not recognize each other. During the Korean War, when China was engaged in war with South Korea and its United Nations allies, propaganda was used to indoctrinate people into hating South Korea, which was called a "puppet state" of the United States by the PRC government of the time.
From 1992 onward, after South Korea's normalization of relations with China, the relationship between the two nations gradually improved. From 2000 onward, Korean popular culture became popular within China.
A February 2021 survey conducted by scholars from Rice University, the University of British Columbia, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy had 43% of Chinese respondents expressing an unfavorable view of South Korea, compared to 49% expressing a favorable view.
Japan
In the Kantō Massacre shortly after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, ethnic Koreans in Japan were scapegoated and killed by mobs of Japanese vigilantes.
During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Japanese and Korean supporters clashed with one another. Both sides were also known to post racist messages against each other on online bulletins. There were also disputes regarding how the event was to be hosted, as a result of the rivalry between the two nations. The territorial dispute over Liancourt Rocks also fuels outrage. Manga Kenkanryu (often referred to as Hating the Korean Wave) by Sharin Yamano discusses these issues while making many other arguments and claims against Korea.
Zainichi Koreans in Japan are also publicly perceived to be a nuisance and are seen as likely to cause trouble and start riots, a view shared by former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara. A Zainichi organisation which has strong ties to the DPRK, Chongryon, is commonly accused of providing funding and material to North Korea and indoctrinating the Zainichi Korean population to actively hate Japan.
Some right-wing groups in Japan today have targeted ethnic Koreans living within Japan. One such group, known as Zaitokukai, is organized by members on the Internet, and has led street demonstrations against Korean schools.
There is also much concern in Japan regarding North Korea and its nuclear and long-range missile capabilities, as a result of missile tests in 1993, 1998 and 2006 and an underground nuclear test in 2006. There are also controversies regarding North Korean abductions of Japanese, where Japanese citizens were abducted by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s.