About ExpatWon

ExpatWon exists because most information about money in Korea is written in Korean, for Koreans — and most English information is either outdated or copied from other blogs by people who never actually did the thing they are describing.

Who writes this

Michael Han

Founder & CEO, Danji Co., Ltd. · MD, VSL Vietnam

Ten years running a Korean company — and now a foreigner building one abroad. Both sides of the desk this site writes about.

ExpatWon is written by Michael Han — founder and CEO of Danji Co., Ltd. (주식회사 단지), a Korean food-manufacturing company he has operated since March 2016, and, since April 2025, Managing Director of VSL Vietnam in Hanoi.

That combination is the point of this site. As a Korean company owner, he has spent a decade on the operator's side of the systems covered here — corporate and personal banking, loan reviews, payroll and the four social insurances, company vehicles and their tax caps, business registration, food-safety compliance. And as an executive building a company abroad, he lives the expat side too: work permits, foreign KYC, and being the customer the local system was not designed for.

He is a certified lead auditor for ISO 9001:2015(quality), ISO 14001:2015 (environmental) andISO 45001:2018 (occupational health & safety) management systems (Korea Enterprise Certification Inc., 2025). The audit habit carries over to the writing: claims need documents, which is why every figure on this site links to the institution that publishes it.

How we work

• Official sources only. Every figure links to the institution that publishes it: the Financial Supervisory Service, the National Tax Service, Korea Immigration Service, the National Health Insurance Service, or the banks' own English pages.
• How it works, not what to buy. We explain processes and costs. Where we use affiliate links, they are disclosed on the page and never change what we write.
• Dated and verified. Every article shows when it was last verified. Korean regulations change often; if you spot something outdated, tell us and we will fix it.

What ExpatWon is not

We are not a bank, a lender, an insurer, or a licensed advisor. Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice — see thedisclaimer. For decisions with real money at stake, confirm the current rules with the official source or a licensed professional.