I did 5 years on the 744 with KE. They broke my contract twice, but who's counting? I also paid $500 for being 20 minutes late at report time, but that was my fault and I deserved it.
However all that has been said about the culture is true. I spent a lot of time on the flight deck with my FO and I might as well have been alone. A new FO would give me the brief, telling me what number course he had attended at Jeju, if he was married and how many kids he had, then shut up for the rest of the flight.
But don't judge the Koreans by KE. The pilots who work for KE are completely different to the man in the street, who would give you all his money and all his time if you looked like you would need it more than he did. They can be wonderful people and you will think that the Koreans who work for the airline are from a different planet altogether.
KE pilots are arrogant and ignorant, and if you listen carefully, they are arrogant about their ignorance, thinking that this proves their manhood or something. It is true that, despite all the outside influences on their culture, a Korean FO would say nothing to his captain to stop the airplane being flown into the side of a mountain.
A good airline culture will never replace the KE culture, despite accidents that have been caused by this. The new Jeju cadets have to pick up this same culture or else they will be frozen out.
The older Korean Captains hate the foreigners, but they hate the Jeju pilots worse.
They have SOPs but do not make the mistake of following them. Better to do what the Korean Captain tells you, no matter how stupid it might seem. The FOs will report every word you say to the Chief Pilot and they have a lot of influence on the foreign pilots, especially renewal of contracts. Some of them might appear to be friendly toward the foreign pilots, but if they truly were, their own people would have ostracised them. It is an act, designed to elicit information that can be used against you.
If you make a small error during your sim check, you can be summarily fired, but the same rule does not apply to the Korean pilot. Seniority seems strange at times, but it is all based on the pilots' date of appointment to the first squadron he worked at in the Air Force. And if the FO flew the F4, while the Captain flew C130s, the FO will be the real boss on your flight.
Don't expect them to honour their word, and don't expect to get anything more than you actually get, and enjoy the flying.
Oh, and enjoy the medicals!