I agree that Korea has a lot of idiotic bureaucrats who apparently think the purpose of scientific pursuit is to win a Nobel prize, but "pent up national shame" is a bit exaggerating. Go to the streets of Gangnam and ask random people what are Korea's biggest problems, and I guarantee not a one in 100 would mention the Nobel prize.
It has nothing to do with Hwang. Hwang's paper was published in Science and he was called pride of Korea. In superconductor case we see infighting and even Koreans are very sceptical. If anything people who hyped this paper were mostly randoms on twitter.
If this was any other country besides Korea I'd agree with you. This is a place where Gangnam style was heralded as a great artistic achievement nationally. There's almost a fetish for success there, anything Korean that achieves global influence is celebrated there.
I don't follow the logic here. So you are assuming that Koreans are already celebrating something that hasn't been peer-reviewed as a great "Korean" achievement that is getting international recognition?
It's a mix of Hwang, Steorn, and Theranos. I'm just in it for the popcorn reading at this point. I no longer fear that it will be validated and destroy society.