The Korean Hockey Association was formed in 1949, and their first national championship was played in the same year. Korea joined the International Hockey Federation in 1957. Their first international tournament was the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo.
In the last two decades, South Korea is the only Asian country to have reached the Olympic men's hockey final. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, South Korea beat India 2-0 in the league stage and Pakistan 1-0 in the semi-final en route to the final. South Korea eventually lost to Netherlands 5-4 in the tie-breaker to finish with the silver medal, in only their third appearance in Olympic hockey.
South Korea has won more Asian Games hockey titles (3) than India (2) and more Asia Cup titles (2) than India (1). South Korea won their first hockey gold in the 1986 Seoul Asiad, thereby shattering the two-nation theory in Asian hockey. Asian Tiger South Korea repeated the feat in the 1994 Hiroshima Asiad and 2002 Busan Asiad. Similarly, in the Asia Cup, South Korea won the 1993-Hiroshima and 1999-Kuala Lumpur editions.
Pakistan has never beaten South Korea in the Olympics. They lost 1-3 in Atlanta (1996) and 0-1 in Sydney (2000) in their only two encounters in the Olympics.
The South Korean women's hockey team has won four successive Asian Games gold medals - 1986 (Seoul), 1990 (Beijing), 1994 (Hiroshima) and 1998 (Bangkok). The Korean women's team has been to the final in both the World Cup as well as the Olympics.
South Korea is the only Asian country to have reached the Olympic women's hockey final. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, South Korea went all the way to the final, eventually losing to Australia.
Move over India. Move over Pakistan. We have seen the future of Asian hockey (both men and women), and the future lies in Korea. At the time of the Sydney Olympics, South Korea were the defending Asia Cup champions in men's, women's, junior men's and junior women's categories.
The most amazing part of the story is that there is a limited pool of 150 players, a single 8-team league, and only 4 astro-turfs in all of Korea. Over a span of 15 years, with such limited resources, coach Kim Sang-Ryul has done wonders for Korea. Sang-Ryul started his coaching career after graduating from the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, India. It took only a short while, but the student has upstaged the master. Korea has become the standard-bearer of men's and women's hockey in Asia