The Olympic Games opened in Seoul on 17th September, 1988 as the world's biggest all-round sporting tournament came to the Korean peninsula. 8,465 athletes from 159 countries came to the Korean capital, with only four countries boycotting the games – Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua boycotting in support of North Korea, who were themselves boycotting after the International Olympic Committee had turned down their request to co-host the Games.

The Korean football team had been drawn in Group C, along with the Soviet Union, USA and Argentina. They began their Olympic campaign with a 0-0 draw against the Soviets in the Busan Gudeok stadium, and then followed that up with another goalless draw in the same stadium against the Americans. Alfaro Moreno opened the scoring for Argentina in the final group stage game at the Busan venue, but Noh Soo-jin equalized soon after. A second-half goal for the Argentines was enough to give them a 2-1 win and put the Koreans out. The Soviet team would eventually win the gold medal by defeating Brazil in the final at the Seoul Olympic stadium. The USSR athletes would be the most victorious at the Games, numbering fifty-five golds amongst their haul of 132 medals. South Korea won twelve golds, thirty-three medals in all.

The Super League again consisted of only five teams, but this year the decision was made for each team to play each other only six times instead of eight, leading to a much-reduced total number of twenty-four games. POSCO Atoms won the championship, finishing two points ahead of Hyundai Horang-i. Only six points separated the five teams in the league, which had taken on a more settled and balanced look.

Former Super League champions Hallelujah won the 36th President's Cup competition that season, defeating another ex-League club Kookmin Bank in the final.

The Korean national team broke their own record scoreline in the 1990 World Cup qualifiers, defeating Nepal 9-0 in Seoul in mid-1989. They cruised through their opening qualifying group scoring twenty-five goals without reply in their six matches. The final qualifying group matches were all played in Singapore, and Korea and the UAE emerged victorious from the group to qualify for the 1990 Italian World Cup, with Korea defeating North Korea 1-0 on the way.

The Super League membership was increased when Ilhwa Chumna were admitted. With six teams now in the league, the teams were to face each other eight times, giving a grand total of forty matches each in a mammoth season. For the first time since 1984 POSCO failed to finish in the top two, coming in fourth only nine points behind champions Yukong Elephants. Ilhwa Chunma had a fairly quiet league debut season, finishing second-bottom, four points above a disappointing Hyundai Horang-i side.

1990 saw Lucky-Goldstar Hwangso take the Super League championship, in a season reduced to only thirty games, with the clubs facing each other only six times. Ilhwa Chunma had an even more disappointing second season, swapping places with 1989 bottom side Hyundai Horang-i and finishing at the foot of the table.

Korea went to Italy in 1990 buoyed by the success of being the first Asian side ever to qualify for two successive tournaments. The draw for the finals tournament grouped them with 1986 semi-finalists Belgium, two-time World Cup winners Uruguay and perennial underachievers Spain. They opened with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Belgians, and five days later went down 3-1 to the Spanish. Already out of the tournament, Korea lost their final match 1-0 to Uruguay, and to make things worse defender Yoon Deok-yeo got sent off in the second half.

Victory in the 1st Dynasty Cup held in Beijing and then an Asian Games tournament third-place finish went a little way towards softening the blow.

At the end of 1990, both Koreas found a way of uniting themselves, albeit briefly, on the football field as a two-legged Reunification Match was held. This was the first time that the two Koreas had met outwith competitive tournaments in a football match since the formation of both nations. The South Korean team journeyed to Pyeongyang on 11th October, 1990 where they went down 2-1 to the North Korean team in front of 150,000 fans at the Neungrado stadium. Twelve days later, a return match was held at the Seoul Olympic stadium with South Korea winning 1-0.

In November that same month, the POSCO Atoms announced completion of the first ever football-only stadium to be constructed in Korea. The 20,000-seater stadium was an indication of how far things were progressing in the domestic game, and of the future direction it could take.