You make a lot of good points in your post. I think the situation is NOT quite as negative as you make it out to be, but there are a LOT of people in Korea- both Koreans AND foreigners - who are abusing the situation.

I do believe you can find a good situation in Korea- I taught there in 2001-2002 at a fairly good school. No, it was far from perfect, but was closer to 100 on the 1-100 scale than to 1. Most -nearly all, in fact - of the students were much more respectful than the average stateside school. I was the ONLY foreign teacher on the staff with teaching credentials and I believe I was the only one with a masters as well. So, the Koreans are indeed hiring inexperienced teachers and non-credentialed teachers. Some of these people make better teachers than the credentialed teachers, but, in general, this is not so. Koreans also have a strong emphasis on youth (sometimes jobs are even advertised as NOT wanting experienced teachers). Many times an age limit is explicit in the job ad - when it is not explicit, it seems to be implicit in many cases.

The pay is still relatively good, but the hours are relatively long(in comparison with other ESL jobs. Some schools do appreciate the experienced teacher and some do treat the foreign teachers well. Many, obviously, do not. Hagwons are, unfortunately, businesses first and schools only second. This is understandable because they are run by businessman - not educators - for the most part ad the regulations on the hagwons are usually neithe rstrict nor strictly enforced.

Go to Korea with your eyes wide open. And your mind open as well.