This status contributes into the substantial tensions that divide the peninsula, and both states assert to become the only real genuine government of Korea. South Korea can be a regional energy and also a produced state, with its economic system rated as the entire world's fourteenth-largest by GDP (PPP). Its armed forces are one of several world's strongest militaries, with the globe's second-premier standing Military by armed forces and paramilitary staff. South Korea continues to be renowned for its globally influential popular culture, particularly in audio (K-pop) and cinema, a phenomenon generally known as the Korean Wave.
South Korea has two volcanic islandsJeju, from the peninsulas southern tip, and Ulleung, about eighty five miles (140 km) east on the mainland in the East 슬롯 Seaand a little-scale lava plateau in Gangwon province.