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From the Finnish Guys Anthropological postings

http://hunjang.blogspot.com/2006/06/noraebang-healthy-entertainment-for.html

Noraebang, healthy entertainment for people - in 1991

Noraebang entertainment in Sillim 2-dong in 2001. (c)AL
A work on leisure in Korea (Kim Mun-gyeom: Y�ga�i Sahoehak, "Sociology of Leisure") mentioned that karaoke or noraebang arrived in Busan in 1991. That is conceivable, as Busan is close to Japan and has been the first to receive Japanese influence and convey Japanese phenomena to Korea. So I had to go to KINDS see how the appearance of noraebang has been recorded in the Korean media. How interesting that noraebang was first mentioned in the national press in November 1991 as a part of government policies to encourage healthy-minded entertainment establishments that conform to the national sentiments (kungmin ch�ngs�) and social realities (sahoe hy�nsil) instead of extravagant and irrational spending and leisure.

But searching further, already on February 3, 1992 Hankuk Ilbo tells that Japanese-style (waesaek) noraebangs, which first appeared in Busan in early 1991 number in hundreds and are spreading to Seoul. The article also conveys worries of excessive copying of Japanese things and, contary to the wishes of the authorities , harmful influences on the youth. And several of the articles in the list of search results are actually about government measures to control the new type of business and entertainment, added with reports of addiction and excessive following of Japanese culture. For example the president of the student association of Hanyang University, also the head of Ch�ndaehy�p (predecessor of Hanchongnyon), was being considered governmental honors for campaigning against Japanese-style entertaintment facilities... (Hankuk Ilbo, April 14, 1992).

Funny to think that noraebang, which has been so much part of the Korean entertainment and leisure scene to make it traditional Korean people's art, became common only two years before I first went to Korea. Yi Kyu-t'ae, the highly influencial culture columnist in Chosun Ilbo who passed in February this year, saw already back then (Chosun, April 14, 1992) that the rapidly increased popularity of noraebangs was not unrelated to more traditional Korean ways of singing.

Update.
Weekly Donga did some work back in 1999 (scroll down) to find out who brought karaoke to Korea. It was Mr Hy�n Ch'ung-dan, who kept a game room (oraksil) in front of the Donga University in Busan. He used to visit Japan often in search of new electronic leisure gadgets, and in early 1991 he brought a song accompaniment machine to Korea. He put Korean songs by himself in it, and installed the machine in his game room in April 1991. It was a glass box for 2-3 persons. Mr Hy�n was already busy at that time developing "multivision" effects, and with the release of the "Assa Panjugi" (앗싸 반주기), developed with Yeongpung Electronics, which showed lyrics in a monitor, the road for the popularity of noraebang was opened. It took one year for the noraebang boom to reach Seoul from Busan via Masan and Daegu.