To be honest I havent followed the KAL accident history, but Ive flown with lots of the cadets in their training facility in California.
What I saw were people with extreme disipline and will to excel.
The group pressure to succed were nothing like Ive expirienced before at other flight schools Ive worked at.
They have very good knowledge of general math&physics etc
What I didnt like with the program were the short time they had to complete zero to 255 hours (PVT thru COM INST ME).
They had only 9 months to do it all, and as you know, their english is usually quite weak when they arrive, so I can see how this seriously hampers performance later on in their careers.
Also, I noticed that they often use memorization to get good exam results but their knowledge are still quite high and well within what are the norm in USA.
Ive flown with Europeans and Americans for every level of certificate, and when it comes to work ethics noone ever came close to the KAL cadets.
What happens trainingwise when they come to Korea I do not know, but quite a few of the cadets in our group were born to be pilots.
Maybe something about the commandstructure?
The cadets that spoke of their future in KAL mentioned "years of doin nothing more than watching the captain flying the plane"
but they said that depended on the Captain.
Supposedly some of the ex military Captains had a dislike to the civilian trained pilots and will give them little practical expirience.
As I say, some of this info came from the KAL cadets, so how valid it is I dont know.
But, poor english and a tendecy to act from rote memory might be the main problem added with the command structure.