"Korea" in English?

[maxiewawa]

What to Korean people mean when they say "Korea"?

It's easy in English, we have one word: Korea. There are two Korean states, which we call North and South Korea.

But the Korean people I've met only ever call themselves "Korean". I've heard people say that they're from "the north of Korea" (meaning Seoul) but that's just got me confused... is Korea 한국 or the whole of Korea, from the Chinese border down?

I'm not sure about other countries, but in Australian media, "Korea" (as a country or nationality) is used about as often as "South Korea".

[manyakumi]

What to Korean people mean when they say "Korea"?

It's easy in English, we have one word: Korea. There are two Korean states, which we call North and South Korea.

But the Korean people I've met only ever call themselves "Korean". I've heard people say that they're from "the north of Korea" (meaning Seoul) but that's just got me confused... is Korea 한국 or the whole of Korea, from the Chinese border down?

I'm not sure about other countries, but in Australian media, "Korea" (as a country or nationality) is used about as often as "South Korea".

"Korea" usually means "The republic of Korea(South Korea)".
And we don't think North Korea is a state of Korea but a different country.
(I mean in the point of nationality)

But "Korean" is somewhat different.
It often means "the race of Korea" including people who live outside of Korea.
Not always though.

[trutherous]

This is an older post but I thought I might interject some things:

Korea/Corea is a word that probably came about during the latter part of the 고려 (Koryeo) dynasty, during which Korea briefly opened up to world trade prior to the Hermit Kingdom period of the later Josun period and became known to the world as the people of Koryeo = Koryeo-an

After liberation from 36 years of Japanese tyranny, and a terrible war that accomplished little more than to carve the country up along the same lines that the superpowers had already agreed to before the war began, the north kept the name "Josun" (the so-called 'Democratic' People's Republic of Korea DPRK), whereas the south took the name "대한민국" known to the west as the Republic of Korea (ROK).

So in the DPRK they refer to themselves as 조선민족/ 쪼선사람 (people or person of Josun), and their language as '조선말' (Josun Mal), whereas in the ROK 한국민족/ 한국사람 (people or person of Hangook), and the language as '한국말 (everyone here should know that last one).

The bottom line is that Koreans don't really call themselves "Korean" except to a foreigner.