How does a foreigner trade Korean stocks?

The posted answers provide the practical path for most foreign individuals of either buying the all country Korea Fund ETF (NYSE:EWY), or the few ADRs or GDRs on individual stocks. However, there are other options for those who are more determined, and who are financially sophisticated. Some of the posted answers also have misinformation, so let’s try to clear some of this up.

1. Contrary to Tim Johnson’s answer, local retail investors constitute a very large part of the overall trading in the Korean stock market, and actually do OK. In fact, much of the trading occurs via mobile apps by such retail investors. See for example: Mobile stock trading exceeds 30% of total volume in Korea - Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea
2. All sellers of Korean stocks (institution or individuals, foreigners or domestic) pay the 30 basis point stamp fee upon a sale. Similarly, all traders in the exchange effectively pay the bid-ask spread. So while it is true that the transactions costs are higher in KRX than say, NYSE,it is rubbish to say that Korea grants an “unfair” advantage to financial institutions over individuals…other than like everywhere else in the world, in that financial institutions have greater research resources, money, and technology than Mr Joe Kim.