It is Halloween weekend and resident Korean historian Robert Neff offers a Korean a number of Korean ghost stories :

Korea is a land haunted not only by its history but, according to some, ghosts as well. Isabella Bird Bishop, a famous English traveler in the late 19th century, described Korea as a land of ghosts and demons.

“In Korean belief, earth, air, and sea are peopled by demons,” she wrote. “They haunt every umbrageous tree, shady ravine, spring, and mountain crest. On green hill slopes, in peaceful agricultural valleys, in grassy dells, on wooded uplands, by lake and stream, by road and river, in north, south, east, and west they abound, making malignant sport out of human destinies. They are on every roof, ceiling, oven and beam. They fill the chimney, shed, the living room, the kitchen- they are on every shelf and jar. In thousands they waylay the traveler as he leaves his home, beside him, behind him, dancing in front of him, whirring over his head, crying out upon him from air, earth, and water.” She may have been exaggerating, but ghostly accounts are scattered throughout the pages of recent history.

William Elliot Griffis, one of the earliest Western experts on Korean history and society, claimed Korea was “governed out of the graveyard.”  [Cheju Weekly via the Marmot's Hole]

Click the link to read more about ghosts in Korea.

Considering how much of a role shaminism has played in Korean history it is easy to understand why early expats to Korea observed Koreans with so many supernatural beliefes.  Even today shaminism is widely practiced in Korea.