There’s apparently only one place to play Pokémon Go in South Korea. This is it.
While it’s not officially out in the country, Inven (via tipster Sang) reports that it can be played in Sokcho and sent reporters there to make sure.
Elsewhere in the country it cannot be played, even through unofficial downloads, because it will not pick up a GPS signal and Pocket Monsters will not appear on maps.
Yet, the top images show Korean Pokémon Go players. They were taken last night by Korean site Wiki Tree.
In this tweet, you can see how South Korea is divided up into diamond-shaped areas, where it’s not possible to play Pokémon Go:
But it looks like Sokcho, located at the far northeast of the country, was a blindspot.
Perhaps Niantic created this grid because it doesn’t have near-term plans to release the game in South Korea? If so, there could be a good reason, because, as Sang points out, releasing it might be extra tricky because private Korean companies hold much of the country’s highly detailed mapping data.
In the meantime, here are Pokémon Go images from folks in Sokcho. Check out how many times they’ve been retweeted to get an idea of how much interest Korean gamers have:
And below is a video of people playing Pokémon Go at a park in Sokcho.
The Huffington Post Korea spoke with the mayor of Sokcho. He said he has become aware that it was possible to play Pokémon Go there and asked people to be safe if they intend to visit the city. The city’s Facebook page even posted a list of all the WiFi spots in Sokcho for visitors:
That brings us to... Herald Corporation (via tipster Sang) has been reporting that all the buses to Sokcho from Seoul were sold out yesterday. Another report stated that bus tickets to Sokcho were sold out through the weekend.
This is making the evening news in South Korea, with networks reporting how people can play Pokémon Go in South Korea:
Which probably helped bus ticket sales.
And where there are excited people, there are also those looking to profit. These folks are offering to hatch eggs at 1 kilometer for a mere 1,000 won, which is around a dollar.
Gotta hatch ‘em all.
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