<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Celiac husband went to Seoul, South Korea, for a week on a last minute
business trip.

I couldn't find any existing free gf-restaurant cards in Korean on the
web, so I simplified the English text as follows:
****
I have Celiac Disease. I become very ill if I eat wheat, rye, barley,
and oats. I can eat rice, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, eggs,
cheese, milk, meat and fish, but without wheat flour or sauce.
****
Then I ran the English-Korean translation using this website:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

Note: I used translation into another known language to confirm that
the translation software was working well enough.
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Husband's report:
On the Korean Air flight they offered a choice of traditional Korean
food or Western food for the meals they served. I always chose Korean.
It was easy to identify what was marinaded in soy and just take it
out/avoid it and it was tasty!  I always travel with dried fruit and
nuts anyway, so hunger is never an issue in a pinch.

I was really lucky because I was with a host who was allergic to wheat
and he made sure that everything I ate at dinner was safe for me. This
allowed me to eat traditional foods with incomprehensible names and
ingredients (all in Korean). Every time I asked about whether
something was safe, he'd get offended and say "of course!', so I soon
stopped asking, and I never had a problem. Try the seaweed soup - it's
delicious! Unfortunately, I don't know the Korean names of any of the
dishes.

The simplified gluten intolerance card  translated into Korean using
babblefish was comprehensible to my host, so I'd recommend using that.
Many people do not have any English at all. All the signs, street
names, maps, menus are in Korean only.

The hotel (Lotte World Hotel in Seoul) had a huge breakfast buffet
with many international choices - eggs, fruit, fish, etc. I ate large
breakfasts to hold me over until dinner, which worked.

Don't touch any fruit on the street vendor's stands. Your hands are
dirty and the vendor will get offended.
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Other report based on Koreans in US:

The two major hazards in Korean food (besides the obvious
pastry/bread/etc.) are barley and soy sauce. Many rice dishes are
made with a mix of rice and barley (especially common in "black rice"
dishes - black rice is $$$ and barley is used as a filler). Stick
with plain steamed white rice. Sauced or marinated dishes are liable
to contain soy sauce - watch for brown color.

In the grill restaurants, meat is pre-marinated (soy sauce) -
however, plain steamed rice and many of the side dishes are safe, as
they are seasoned only with salt, rice vinegar, chili pepper, sugar
(or honey) and sesame oil. Take a translator (bi-lingual business
buddy is fine)!  Watch the heat, if he has a tender tummy - the
Koreans are big on fiery food - anything bright or orangey-red should
be assumed to have large quantities of dried chili added! (And he
can't use a beer to douse the heat, as the Koreans would!)

Koreans are not big on dairy, but they love their fresh fruit - if
your husband can deal with a diet of rice, steamed or raw fish and
fruit for a few days, he should be just fine. He can use eyes and
nose to judge cleanliness, but if what I've seen here is any
indication, sanitary standards of the Koreans generally exceed what
we demand in the states (the lone food outlet in the food court at
the market that got a "B" from county health was out of business
within a matter of hours - apparently the food court owner told them
they could conduct business elsewhere).

If he can find mochi (made from sweet rice, and stuffed with carious
things) it makes a good take-along. Again, the translator would be
handy to make sure no barley is used in its preparation (very few of
the Koreans use barley or malt in their mochi, but a few do).

Much of what I see the Koreans in the US eating is fresh food,
prepared from scratch, so if things are the same over there, he
should be able to ask nicely and get what he needs (it is considered
rather rude to knowingly get a guest/customer sick - and the Koreans,
as a whole, are more health-conscious than we are).
------------

*Please provide references to back up claims of a product being GF or not GF*
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