This status contributes into the substantial tensions that divide the peninsula, and each states assert for being the only real respectable government of Korea. South Korea is often a regional electrical power in addition to a designed country, with its financial system ranked as the globe's fourteenth-largest by GDP (PPP). Its armed forces are among the list of globe's strongest militaries, with the earth's second-premier standing army by armed forces and paramilitary staff. South Korea is renowned for its globally influential popular culture, especially in tunes (K-pop) and cinema, a phenomenon referred to as the Korean Wave.
South Korea has two volcanic islandsJeju, off the peninsulas southern suggestion, and Ulleung, about eighty five miles (one hundred forty km) east of the mainland while in the East Seaand a small-scale lava plateau in 파라곤솔루션 Gangwon province.