Portuguese Jesuit priest Gregorious de Cespedes was possibly the first Catholic missionary in Korea, arriving in Busan on 27 December 1593 (Yet, this is just about the possibility, or rather, the probability.
During the 19th century, the Catholic Church was targeted by the government of the Joseon Dynasty chiefly for the religion's opposition to ancestral "worship", which the Church perceived to be a form of idolatry, but which the State prescribed as a cornerstone of Korean culture.