Korea uses 220 volt plugs. It isn't a big deal since nowadays many things like computers have little transponders or whatever they are that can be used with 110 or 220. It means that you just need a cheap little adaptor for most things to work.
The weird thing is that these plugs fall out of the wall with the slightest movement. If you touch one they sizzle and then fall out. The whole systems seems bizarrely cheap and maybe even dangerous (the sizzle is kind of freaky), especially considering that Korea is an electronics powerhouse. They should get this stuff, or so you would think.
(Now, there are some style of plugs that have big rubber gaskets that lock into the outlets, I will admit). But plugs still tend to fall out.
In America, surge protectors have become almost fetishistic if not actually pornographic. They are equivalent to Hummers. American crave crazily overbuilt things, it is a universal truth. The surge protectors, with all manner of technical ratings in joules emblazoned on them, are elaborate things with surge protectors for every conceivable style of plug, phone, dsl, USB line, you name it. The sockets are all stiff too, as if to afford a great sense of stability and vigor. The one I use at home is almost impossible to ge the plugs in and out of it. Here, I haven't seen actual surge protectors for sale anywhere at all, even expensive computers are plugged into the same cheapo powerstrips that are for sale on the street.
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