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The team and their Dutch coach have been showered with acclaim and gifts since beating Portugal 1-0 on Friday to reach a second round clash with Italy.
The Dutchman earned a million dollar bonus for meeting the Korean Football Association's target of a second round place, media said amidst reports linking Hiddink to a move to Dutch team PSV Eindhoven.
Players have been exempted from their 26 month military service on top of their cash bonuses.
Now fans' demands that Hiddink be given Korean nationality are being taken seriously by the government which has said it is prepared to bend the normally tight immigration rules for the new national hero.
Justice ministry officials told the Yonhap national news agency that Hiddink would be given nationality if he wanted, even though he does not meet normal criteria for a passport.
They said the rule imposing five years of residency and passing a Korean language and history examination could be waived because of Hiddink's "invaluable service" to the nation.
Hiddink arrived from the Netherlands in January 2000 to take control of the national squad and like most expatriates only mumbles a few words of Korean.
But he has won over many doubters with the way he has instilled confidence into the Korean team that started the tournament outside the top 40 in the FIFA rankings.
Korea's corporate captains now analyse "the Hiddink way" to see if his football management tactics can be applied to industry.
Hiddink's contract ends just after the World Cup and the national federation chief Chung Mong-Joon has asked him to stay at least until the Asian Games at Busan in October.
But the major Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said PSV Eindhoven, which sacked its coach last month, has made a move for Hiddink, who still has strong family ties in his homeland.
Hiddink made his reputation by guiding the Netherlands to the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup in France.
Having made sure that South Korea does not suffer the humiliation of becoming the first hosts to fail to reach the second round, the Dutchman now faces the new challenge preparing for Italy on Tuesday with national expectations of a new win growing.
Hiddink said after the Portugal match that the word "defensive" was not in his vocabulary and he would not change team tactics against Italy.
"I would not start changing the tactics now even if I could," he said. "The players would not be able to change their style of play and I would not ask them to.
"It is going to be a curious game against Italy. We will have one of the smaller footballing nations (Korea) attacking one of the biggest (Italy).
"Italy are a very smart team. They choose their own style of play - they want to get a result even if the game is not pretty. Italy are a good team and a resolute team. It will be tough, tough, tough."
Hiddink said the main strength of the Korean team was their willingness to play for each other.
"It has been a huge team effort to reach the second round," he said. "They are very close and they have grown as players, and in confidence, so much over the past few months.
"They have coped with such high expectations within the country and they are becoming better by the game.
"The players have an ability to learn very fast - most of them have not experienced this kind of pressure situation before. Sometimes in the past few months I have been tough on them - now I am very proud of them."