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As the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the Korean market, KT has sold almost 900,000 of these dandy little devices since its release on the peninsula.

The second biggest Telco in Korea has therefore had much to be happy about since the phone’ s release back in November and has been reaping the rewards, recently reporting an increase of data usage by its customers in July.

KT created a lot of hype over its prize product, warming up Korean customers and injecting some iPhone fever into the nation – like a DJ getting ready for its main set. Unsurprisingly then Korea’s mobile maniacs were ready to pounce like a pack of wolves with the release of the iPhone 4. However, to KTs dismay, the crowd has fallen flat, and there is seems to be no dial tone.

The words ‘death’ and ‘grip’ may spring to mind, however this time Korean style.

As the story goes – or the Korean proverb for that matter – ‘those who eat salty fish will have to accept being thirsty’. Or as we will put it, if you are exclusively reaping the benefits, you will be exclusively managing the downfalls.

So KT, over to you….

KT has now found itself inundated with complaints regarding the integrity of the iPhone 4 and crabby Koreans are knocking on its door demanding an explanation for the bad reception on their new phone.

KT has offered no explanation as of yet, except to say that it denies that there are any serious defects with the phone and has agreed to look in to the matter.

Officials from KT seem staggered by the fact that such a problem could exist in Korea, where there is an entanglement “of dense network base stations”.  Maybe Korea’s hospitable environment for phone networks tells us more about the severity of the problem then?

Representatives from Apple’s Korean office are at the moment exercising their right to remain silent and so far we have no comments regarding the reasons for the problem.

However Apple has agreed to provide bumpers to Korean users, free of charge but the screening process to get your hands on one here has been described as “less than consumer friendly”.

If customers are at the end of their tether, they could always call Steve Park at Apple’s Korean branch.  However word has it that he is often not available. We speculate he is doing a ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ on us and is Steve Jobs at the American branch by day and Steve Park by night.

Whatever you’re real identity is Steve, you better watch out, In America they may have the know-how on complaining and compensation, but in Korea, they know Tae Kwon Do.