Suwon is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population close to 1¼ million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan Metropolitan City, though it enjoys a lesser degree of self-governance as a 'special case city'.

Korean is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea. The language has notable differences in each of the Koreas, in part owing to different official standardizations of the language. They are still largely mutually intelligible, however. South Korean newspaper Daily NK has claimed North Korea criminalizes the use of the South's standard language with the death penalty, and South Korean education and media often portray the North's language as alien and uncomfortable.