The South Korean national ice hockey team () is the national men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team of the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

(South Korea). They are currently ranked 19th in the IIHF World Rankings and competed in the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

top division tournament. The team's most successful campaign thus far was a second-place finish in the 2017 Division I Group A tournament and thus qualifying for the top division in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. They competed in their first

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

as the host nation.

History

South Korea first participated in the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, playing in Pool C, the third level of the tournament. They did not return until

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, again in Pool C, and became a regular participant in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

. They remained at the Division I level, the second tier of the World Championship, from

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

until

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, when they earned a promotion to the 2018 World Championship. Upon being named the host country for the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, the South Korean team began efforts to steadily improve themselves in order to be competitive with the other teams expected at the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

, led by the efforts of Korea Ice Hockey Association president

Chung Mong-won Chung Mong-won (, born 4 August 1955) is a South Korean ice hockey administrator and businessman. He has served as chief executive officer of both Halla Group and Mando Corporation, founded the Anyang Halla hockey team in 1994, and co-founded As ...

. Several North American players playing for teams in South Korea were offered South Korean citizenship, thus allowing them to play at the Olympics. This was done to help the team perform better in the lead-up to the Olympics, which proved successful: when awarded the Olympics in 2011, the South Korean team was ranked 31st in the IIHF World Ranking, while on the eve of the Olympics had moved up to 18th. However, South Korea gradually phased out the use of naturalized players in the post-COVID-19 era. The South Korean team is one of the powerhouses of Asian ice hockey. It is a regular participant in the

Asian Winter Games The Asian Winter Games (AWG) is an international multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) featuring winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested creating a winter version of the ...

, with its best result being a silver medal in 2017. In November 2024, South Korea took part in the inaugural IIHF Asia Championship and finished in third place.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

– 12th place

World Championship

Asian Winter Games

–

3rd place *

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

–

3rd place *

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

– 4th place *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

– 4th place *

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

– 4th place *

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

–

3rd place *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

–

3rd place *

–

2nd place *

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

–

3rd place

Asia Championship

– 3rd place

All-time record against other nations

''Last match update: 14 February 2025''

All-time record against other clubs

''Last match update: 11 August 2017''

References

External links

*
IIHF profileNational Teams of Ice Hockey profile
{{Men's national ice hockey teams Korea, South Ice hockey teams in South Korea Men's national ice hockey teams

History

Tournament record

Olympic Games

World Championship

Asian Winter Games

Asia Championship

All-time record against other nations

All-time record against other clubs

See also

References

External links