Via DPRK studies, an item about the ROK and its surnames. The three most common surnames - Kim (21 percent) Lee (15) and Park (9) - accounted for a full 45 percent of the population in 2000.:

… a lot of interesting information on Korean names is found at Wikipedia… Kims, Lees, and Parks, oh my! They also have a page that lists Korean surnames in alphabetical order, along with the Hanja and how many people have that name as of 2000 (South Korea only). I see that my Mother-in-law has a relatively uncommon surname: 가 (‘Ka’ or ‘Kah’), and that she is one of about 9,000 others.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, korea, northeast asia