How to Buy Korean Stocks Listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ From the US

Why “Buying Korean Stocks” Usually Means Something Else

Search “how to buy Samsung stock” from the US and almost every result points you toward the same workaround: buy an ETF like EWY, or look for an over-the-counter ADR ticker. Neither of those is actually Samsung Electronics or Hyundai Motor trading on their real market. They’re US-listed proxies – useful, but a step removed from the companies themselves, which trade on the Korea Exchange (KRX) under two boards: KOSPI (the large-cap board, home to Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor) and KOSDAQ (Korea’s growth-stock board, closer to a Nasdaq analog).

Buying the actual KOSPI- or KOSDAQ-listed share used to require a Korean brokerage account, a Korean address, and a now-defunct government registration step – effectively out of reach for a typical US retail investor. That changed in stages between late 2023 and mid-2026, and this guide covers how it actually works now, not the workarounds.

Analysis: This is a separate question from the one our companion article on SK hynix’s Nasdaq debut answers. That piece covers ADRs and Korea ETFs – the easy, US-brokerage-native route. This one covers the harder, more direct route: opening the kind of account that lets you place an order that actually executes on the Korea Exchange, in won, during Korean market hours.

The Registration Hurdle That Disappeared in 2023

For nearly 30 years, any foreign investor – individual or institutional – had to obtain an Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) from Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) before they could legally trade Korean securities. It was a real barrier: paperwork, processing time, and a step most US retail brokerages had no reason to build a workflow around.

Korea abolished the IRC system effective December 14, 2023, replacing it with simpler identification: a foreign individual investor now just uses their passport number, and a foreign corporate investor uses a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), with no separate FSS pre-registration required at all [src-fsc-irc-abolition, src-koreaherald-irc]. In the six months after the change, 1,432 new accounts were opened by foreign investors across 36 firms – more than double the pace of IRC issuance the FSS had been processing before [src-fsc-irc-abolition].

Analysis: This is the single most important fact in this whole guide, and it’s also the most commonly missed one – older guides to buying Korean stocks (including some brokerages’ own help pages) still reference the IRC application process. If a source you’re reading mentions an “Investment Registration Certificate,” treat it as outdated.

What Changed in 2026: Direct KRX Access Finally Arrived

Registration was only half the problem. The other half was that almost no US-based broker actually routed orders to the Korea Exchange. That changed on May 7, 2026, when Interactive Brokers announced it had launched direct access to KRX-listed equities – describing itself as the first major US-based broker to offer seamless trading in Korea’s more than $4 trillion equity market, covering over 2,700 listed securities including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Hyundai Motor by name [src-ibkr-pr-krx, src-businesswire-ibkr].

“Korea is one of Asia’s most dynamic equity markets, and access to the KRX enables our clients to more comprehensively manage their Asian exposure,” said David Friedland, IBKR’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific, in the launch announcement [src-ibkr-pr-krx]. Existing IBKR clients can turn on KRX trading permissions the same day in Client Portal; new-account approvals are typically completed within one business day. This access is not available to Korean residents, or to clients of Interactive Brokers Securities Japan Inc. or Interactive Brokers India Pvt. Ltd. [src-ibkr-pr-krx].

Almost simultaneously, Korean brokerages started building the same bridge from their side. Samsung Securities partnered with Interactive Brokers around early May 2026 to launch a “foreign integrated account” service, letting non-resident individuals trade Korean stocks without separately opening a domestic Korean brokerage account – and the announcement reportedly sent Samsung Securities’ own shares up about 28.3% that day [src-sedaily-samsung-ibkr, src-asiae-integrated-account]. Following Hana Securities and Samsung Securities, other major Korean firms – Yuanta, Meritz, Mirae Asset, Shinhan, NH Investment & Securities, and KB Securities among them – were reported to be preparing similar integrated-account services through the first half of 2026, aided by an FSC rule change that eased limits on foreign omnibus/integrated accounts [src-asiae-integrated-account, src-fsc-integrated-account].

Analysis: The practical upshot is that “how do I actually buy KOSPI stock from the US” has a real, current answer for the first time – Interactive Brokers is the one independently confirmable route for a US-based individual as of this writing. We could not independently verify from an official page whether Charles Schwab’s or Fidelity’s international trading currently includes South Korea; Fidelity’s own international-trading page lists 25 supported countries and South Korea is not among them, so treat any claim that it is with caution [src-ibkr-pr-krx]. If you use a broker not named here, check their own current market list directly rather than assuming coverage.

Opening the Account: What You Actually Need

For a US-based individual going the Interactive Brokers route, the practical steps are:

1. Open or use an existing IBKR account. IBKR LLC serves US and Canadian clients; other regional IBKR entities (UK, EU, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia) serve their own residents. A Korean resident cannot use this route through IBKR at all [src-ibkr-pr-krx].
2. Enable KRX market data and trading permissions. Existing clients do this in Client Portal; it’s a same-day toggle, not a new application [src-ibkr-pr-krx].
3. Identify yourself with your passport, not an IRC. Since the 2023 abolition, your existing account-opening identification (passport for an individual) is what satisfies Korea’s foreign-investor identification requirement – there’s no separate certificate to apply for [src-fsc-irc-abolition].
4. Fund the account and convert currency as needed. Korean shares trade and settle in Korean won (KRW); IBKR converts currency as part of the trade rather than requiring you to hold KRW in advance.

If you’d rather work through a Korean brokerage directly – some, like Mirae Asset Securities, still document a traditional non-resident account-opening path involving a passport copy, a non-resident determination form, and a standing-proxy agreement – be aware that some of these guides have not yet been updated to remove IRC-era language; don’t assume every step listed is still required without confirming with the broker directly [src-fsc-irc-abolition].

When the Market Is Open (and When It Isn’t, From the US)

KRX significantly extended its trading day starting June 29, 2026, partly in response to competition from Nextrade, a rival Korean trading venue that had already been running longer hours. The KOSPI/KOSDAQ trading day now runs in three blocks, all in Korea Standard Time (KST, UTC+9, no daylight saving): a pre-market session from 7:00-8:00 a.m., the regular session unchanged at 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., and an after-hours session from 4:00-8:00 p.m. [src-koreaherald-hours].

For a US investor, that regular session lands overnight: roughly 7:00 p.m.-1:30 a.m. US Eastern time when the US is on daylight saving, or 8:00 p.m.-2:30 a.m. Eastern on standard time – in other words, evening into the middle of the night for an East Coast investor, and even later for the West Coast. Settlement is currently T+2 (trade date plus two business days), though Korea has been working toward shortening this to T+1 [src-clearstream-settlement]. There’s no minimum lot size to worry about – KOSPI moved to single-share trading back in 2014, matching KOSDAQ, so a single share of Samsung Electronics is a normal, tradeable order [src-thetradenews-lotsize].

Analysis: The overnight-hours reality is probably the single most underrated practical obstacle in this whole guide. A US investor placing a live order during the regular KRX session is doing so well after the US trading day has ended – this is a genuinely different rhythm than clicking “buy” on a US stock at 10 a.m. Eastern, and it’s worth factoring in before you assume you’ll be watching the position trade in real time during your own workday.

What It Actually Costs

Two costs are confirmed and specific. First, Korea’s Securities Transaction Tax on listed share sales rose from 0.15% to 0.20% combined as of January 1, 2026 (0.05% base tax plus 0.15% Rural Special Tax on KOSPI; a flat 0.20% on KOSDAQ) [src-biggo-transaction-tax]. This is charged on the sale side only, based on proceeds, and it’s separate from any broker commission – Interactive Brokers’ own Korea fee page states plainly that IBKR “pays a Securities Transaction Tax… on behalf of its customers, on all stock sales executed in Korea, and passes through the tax to the selling customer accordingly” [src-ibkr-korea-fees]. Second, IBKR advertises FX conversion commissions for currency conversion (into and out of Korean won) “as low as 0.20 basis points (0.0020%) of trade value” [src-ibkr-pr-krx].

What we’re deliberately not doing here is quoting you a specific per-share or per-trade commission dollar figure for KRX equities. IBKR publishes a live, tiered commission schedule that varies by account type and monthly volume, and it changes; the accurate, current number is on IBKR’s own fee page, not restated here where it could go stale. Check it directly before you trade.

Analysis: If you’re used to US market conventions, add up three things before you decide a trade makes sense: the transaction tax on the way out (sell-side only, currently 0.20%), a small FX conversion cost on both legs, and whatever IBKR’s live commission schedule shows for your account tier – none of which is prohibitive for a normal retail-sized trade, but all of which are real and worth checking rather than assuming away.

Taxes: Dividends, Capital Gains, and the Documents That Matter

This section describes the general rules, not personalized advice – talk to a tax professional about your own situation, especially since documentation requirements changed as recently as 2023.

Dividends. Korea’s standard, non-treaty withholding tax on dividends paid to a non-resident individual is 22% (a 20% national withholding rate plus a 10% local surtax calculated on that withheld amount) [src-pwc-withholding]. The US-Korea tax treaty caps this at 15% for an individual recipient – but claiming that reduced rate at source has required documentation establishing “substantive beneficial ownership” since January 1, 2023; without it, the withholding agent applies the full 22% by default [src-pwc-withholding, src-irs-treaty].

Capital gains. Korea’s capital-gains treatment of foreign investors on listed securities has historically turned on ownership-based “major shareholder” thresholds – a related-party ownership test of roughly 25% for non-residents is the standard reference point [src-aima-capital-gains]. That framework has been a moving target: in July 2025 the government floated lowering a separate, narrower won-denominated threshold from 5 billion won to 1 billion won, which was then reported scrapped that September after public backlash [src-bloomberg-cgt-reversal]. We’re deliberately not asserting which exact figure is in force as you’re reading this – policy in this specific area has changed more than once in a single year. What doesn’t change under any version of these proposals: every threshold under discussion, whether framed as an ownership percentage or a won amount, is far larger than an ordinary retail position in Samsung Electronics or Hyundai Motor would ever represent. Confirm the current rule with a Korea tax professional rather than relying on a fixed number here.

PFIC. US investors researching foreign stocks often worry about PFIC (Passive Foreign Investment Company) classification, which can trigger punitive US tax treatment. Under IRS rules, PFIC status generally requires a company to have 75%+ passive gross income or 50%+ passive assets – tests that large operating companies like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor fail by a wide margin, based on the general operating-company exception rather than any company-specific ruling [src-irs-pfic].

The Risks Worth Knowing Before You Buy

Currency. You’re buying a KRW-denominated asset. Foreign institutional investors net-sold roughly $78 billion of Korean stocks in the first half of 2026, and the won has been under pressure with the Bank of Korea holding rates against a higher-for-longer US Federal Reserve stance [src-kei-krw-risk] – the won had already fallen to a seven-month low against the dollar in November 2025 amid a similar stretch of foreign-investor selling, a reminder that this currency risk is a recurring pattern, not a one-off [src-kedglobal-krw].

Liquidity. IBKR describes KRX liquidity as “comparable to many European exchanges” in its own launch materials – worth noting as the broker’s characterization, not an independently benchmarked figure [src-ibkr-pr-krx].

Investor protection. SIPC covers Interactive Brokers LLC customer accounts up to $500,000 (including a $250,000 limit on cash), with IBKR carrying additional excess-SIPC coverage through Lloyd’s of London on top of that [src-sipc-protection]. It’s worth being precise about what that actually protects: SIPC covers you against your broker-dealer failing, not against your KOSPI shares losing value or the won weakening against the dollar. Buying the real thing on the real exchange doesn’t remove market risk – it just removes the ADR/ETF layer in between.

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This article describes publicly available brokerage and tax information as of July 2026 and is not personalized investment or tax advice. Brokerage offerings, fees, and tax rules change; confirm current terms directly with your broker and a qualified tax professional before acting.