Although the Church did not officially move into Korea until 1955, LDS military personnel had taught and baptized some twenty Koreans by May 1953. Kim Ho Jik, a Korean who had studied for a doctorate at Cornell University, joined the Church in New York in 1951. On returning home he became an influential member of the Church and of the Korean government. Until his death in 1959, Kim facilitated the founding of the Church in South Korea. As in Japan, the Church in Korea is in the hands of local leaders.

The newly appointed mission president, Paul Andrus, sent the first two elders from Japan to Seoul in April 1956. By the summer of 1962, when Korea became a separate mission with Gail E. Carr as president, there were over 1,600 members. In 1968, the Church was established in every major city and all provincial capitals. Unlike most other areas of the world, the majority of Koreans baptized were men, and even in the late 1970s, 55 percent of converts were male. Korea has remained the most fruitful Asian mission other than the Christian Philippines.

The second and third mission presidents, Spencer J. Palmer and Robert H. Slover, did much to enlarge the Church in Korea. Both men emphasized public relations, translation work (the Book of Mormon was published in Korean in 1967 and the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price in 1968), leadership training, the purchase of property for chapels and other uses, and preparation for stakes. President Edward Brown later supervised the beginning of the seminary and institute program. In March 1973, Rhee Ho Nam was sustained as president of the first Korean stake. Two years later, in 1975, the Korea Seoul Mission was divided and a new mission was organized in Pusan with Han In Sang as president. On December 14-15, 1985, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Seoul Korea Temple.

Ludlow, Daniel H., ed. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.