South Korea competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Olympics, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the United States boycott. The Korean Olympic Committee sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games since 1992. A total of 264 athletes, 145 men and 119 women, competed in 25 sports.

South Korea left Athens with a total of 30 medals (9 golds, 12 silver, and 9 bronze), finishing ninth in the overall medal standings. Four of these medals were awarded to the athletes in archery, badminton, and taekwondo (South Korea's traditional sport), and three each in judo, shooting, and table tennis. South Korea's team-based athletes proved successful in Athens as the women's handball team climbed the podium with a silver medal for the second time, following its major setback in Sydney from a fourth-place finish.

Among the nation's medalists were taekwondo jin Moon Dae-sung in the men's super heavyweight division, archer Park Sung-hyun in both women's individual and team event, artistic gymnasts Kim Dae-eun and Yang Tae-young in the men's individual all-around, and trap shooter Lee Bo-Na.

Both North Korea and South Korea marched together in the parade of nations during the opening and closing ceremonies under the Unification Flag, a white flag showing the united Korean Peninsula in blue. They had two flagbearers carrying the flag together at each occasion, one representing the North and the other representing the South. The female athletes and staff wore red blazers, while their male counterparts wore blue. Although they marched together, the teams competed separately and had separate medal tallies.

Three South Korean archers qualified each for the men's and women's individual archery, and a spot each for both men's and women's teams.

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