It is not completely prohibited,no. In principle, it is possible, however, difficult to find an airplane to rent and if you find one, it is difficult to get a flight plan accepted. Any cross country flight requires a flight plan at least 24h prior, which is checked by the military.
I’ve met a private pilot in Seoul last year and he took me to the Korean flying university where he knew one of the ‘professor’ which allows him to fly there (normally only for the students). I ended up taking a local flight with the said professor as my instructor, which was quite a nice experience. Being around the airport in short and tee-shirt with all the student in black trousers and white shirt was also quite ‘funny’ :-).
Going back there soon, will see if I manage to get some flying adventure again.
That’s interesting. Again, I know nothing about GA in South Korea, but this country being quite wealthy and democratic, I would have thought there is a lot more private GA than that.
According to the local pilot I met there, the problem is the military because of the dormant conflict. That means that the whole South Korean airspace is controlled by the military ad they don’t like GA, not sure why exactly, but they seam to consider all GA suspicious.
It’s not possible to safeguard from an air attack and allow “free” private GA at the same time. The reason GA is permitted in Europe, the US, etc, is because there are no borders with countries which are (a) openly hostile and (b) have a lot of capability.
