The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; Korean: 예수 그리스도 후기 성도 교회) was unofficially established in South Korea as early as World War II due to religious influence by LDS servicemen; however, Korean people did not begin to get baptized until the missionary efforts of LDS servicemen during the Korean War.

Kim Ho Jik was the first Korean person to be baptized in the LDS Church on July 29, 1951, in New York.

Successful missionary work led to the growth of the LDS Church in the 1960s and 1970s leading to the organization of the first stake in Korea in 1973 and the dedication of the first temple in Seoul on December 14, 1985.

[4] Fresh after being released after president of the Japan Mission, Alma Owen Taylor and missionary Frederick A. Caine visited Korea for a few weeks to determine whether Korea was ready for missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

[7][8] Kim Ho Jik had been sent to New York in 1949 by the South Korean president to learn about nutrition and bring that knowledge back to improve Korea.

[9] While attending Cornell, Kim was given a copy of the Articles of Faith by a Latter-day Saint friend.

[11] After the cease fire, most members moved back to Seoul, which became the center of the LDS Church in Korea.

[11] Due to problems maintaining a permanent place of worship, in February 1954, a Korean Sunday School was established with Kim as superintendent.

[16] Having been transferred from missions in Japan, Don G. Powell and Richard L. Detton were the first Mormon missionaries in Korea; they arrived on April 20, 1956.

[16] Due to postwar conditions in Korea, in summer 1958, half of the missionaries became sick with hepatitis.

Church materials such as the Book of Mormon and hymnbooks were not translated into Korean until over a year after full-time missionary work began.

Kim translated the Articles of Faith and the sacrament prayers, but missionaries still had difficulties communicating in Korean.

Kim supervised the translation process, working with Chang Se Cheon and Cheong Dae Pan.

Due to the extension revisions necessary, a small pocket edition of 3 Nephi was published before the rest of the manuscript.

[25] When Gail Carr became mission president, he allowed missionary Bruce K. Grant to gather opinions on the translation from both Korean members and academics.

After Carr was released as mission president, the first Korean translation of the Book of Mormon was published on March 29, 1967.

[33] After Carr, the next three mission presidents were carefully chosen based on academic accomplishment due to the Korean values of education.

Palmer had previously served as an Army chaplain in Korea and he was a professor of Korean studies and eastern religions at Brigham Young University.

While missionary work and the establishment of the LDS church in Korea had been fairly successful, church membership was unstable due to the large number of student members and Korean leadership was lacking, relying too heavily on the leadership of young American missionaries.

[35] On January 2, 1966, Palmer and a Korean District choir participated in a 30-minute program on television that presented song and testimony.

[41] On the last day of Brown's visit, he participated in a flag raising ceremony at the Church headquarters in Seoul.

[44] Baptisms began to increase in 1969, in part, because of the establishment of the Language Training Mission in Hawaii.

[55] BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble performed in the Opening Ceremonies of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

[58] In 2001, Dallin H. Oaks met with Korea's prime minister at the time Lee Han-Dong, while at a regional conference in Seoul.

First of all, previous missions to Korea by other Christian denominations prepared Korean people for LDS missionary work.

Additionally, the Confucian values embedded in Korean culture have influenced Korea in keeping and maintaining high-quality genealogical records.

[64] Furthermore, other emphases of the LDS Church such as education, the eternal nature of the family, and temple work have been very appealing to the Korean people.

Moreover, LDS missionary success in the early history of the Church in Korea was influenced by the political and economic turmoil surrounding the Korean War.

Suffering and hardship caused the Korean people to look to other religious and philosophical sources for answers to their questions.

[66] Second, marriage in Korea is often regulated by parents, using the principles of kunghap, similar to astrology, in which compatibility of couples is determined by the year, month, day, and hour in which someone is born.