South Korea
Quick Facts
Legalization Status: Illegal
% of Population Receiving Chiropractic: < 1%
Population Size: 51.3 million
Common Health Modalities: Western Medicine, Traditional Korean Medicine, Physical Therapy
Common Chiropractic Techniques: Diversified, Active Release Technique, Gonstead, Thompson Drop Table, CBP
History
Timeline:
1946: Dukgeun Chung, DC, opened a chiropractic clinic in San Francisco. He is the first Korean chiropractor on record.
1984: A Dr. Suh helped to hold international chiropractic meeting in Seoul. Dr. Suh graduated with a Ph.D in Biomechanics at a university in Berkeley and worked as a Professor at the Department of Medicine in Colorado University. He did research and did scientific works for chiropractic.
Sometime after, the first chiropractic clinic was opened at Daegu College, where the professors at Life university worked together with MDs at community hospitals near the clinic.
1988: The peak interest in chiropractic began through seeing chiropractors from the US adjusting their athletes at the Olympic Games in Seoul.
1993: The Korean Chiropractic Association (KCA) was created. Dr. Yong Serb Song, DC, who was a graduate of Palmer Chiropractic, was the first KCA president. Myeong Jong Lee, DC as Secretary, both to serve two-year terms.
Over the years, chiropractors continued to face prosecutions and convictions, the third prosecution likely resulting in a prison sentence.
2001: Dr. Yong Serb Song passed away. He was convicted three times.
2003: Dr. Taeg Su Choi become president of KCA. A couple past presidents had left the country to avoid imprisonment for practicing without a license.
2010: The proposal for practicing alternative medicine (e.g. chiropractic) fell short by one vote. It received 5 out of 9 votes from the judges in the Consitutitional Court. There have been several appeals since then.
2010: KCA was registered at the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC). Total members listed were 113.
Legalization Status
The government disproves of chiropractors treating patients in Korea, although other practitioners such as Oriental Doctors and Physical Therapists utilize chiropractic techniques and tools in their practice. The DCs have been working to legalize the right to practice but are faced with adversarial organizations and other counterparts.
Although spinal manipulation has been within Oriental Traditional Medicine, the methods of Chiropractic adjusting are known as "chuna" in Korea. Most, if not all, of those who practice "chuna" do not have DC degrees. However, the average Korean person would prefer to receive "chuna" over chiropractic as the Korean population is not aware of the difference between the two.
Practitioners such as acupuncturists, physical therapists, etc. are utilizing chiropractic techniques and tools in their offices but one can say that they are not following correct protocols. Weekend seminars from DCs are usually the educational route of these practitioners.
Techniques
These links will take you to the website where the technique's full protocol and efforts are listed and described.
Korean
Chiropractic Association
Contact us for more information.
ChiroASIA Korea
Regional Representative
<position open>