It marks his first managerial position since February 2020, when he stepped down after just 10 weeks at German club Hertha Berlin.

Klinsmann previously coached the United States from 2011 to 2016, guiding them to the last-16 of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

However, he was sacked in November 2016 after a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 2015 Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football Gold Cup and with the US bottom of the final qualification group for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which they would ultimately miss out on for the first time since 1986.

Klinsmann guided Germany to the semi-finals at their home World Cup in 2006, having been handed his first managerial role in 2004.

He also spent nearly a year in charge of German giants Bayern Munich in 2008 and 2009.

As a player, Klinsmann won the World Cup with West Germany in 1990 and an Olympic bronze medal at Seoul 1988.

He then helped a unified Germany to win the 1996 European Championship, after losing to Denmark in the final four years earlier.

During his career for West Germany and Germany, he scored 47 goals in 108 appearances.

He was a prolific goalscorer at club level with the likes of Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich.

Klinsmann replaces Portuguese coach Paulo Bento in charge of South Korea.

Bento departed after the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where South Korea lost to Brazil in the round-of-16.

South Korea have qualified for the last 10 men's World Cups, but that was the first time they had progressed to the knockout stages since 2010.

Klinsmann sparked anger in Iran at Qatar 2022 for his punditry on British public broadcaster the BBC.

After Iran's 2-0 win against Wales, he claimed that their gamesmanship and applying pressure on referees was "their culture".

The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran manager Carlos Queiroz urged FIFA to remove Klinsmann from its Technical Study Group for the tournament, but he later claimed the comments were taken out of context.

Klinsmann's contract with South Korea is set to run to the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, with at least eight Asian nations set to qualify for the expanded tournament.

His first match is due to be a friendly against Colombia on March 24 in Ulsan.

"I’m delighted and honoured to become the coach of Korea Republic national team," Klinsmann said.

"I’m aware of the constant progress and achievement they have made for a long time, and I’m honoured to follow the footsteps of great coaches such as Guus Hiddink and Paulo Bento.

"I’ll do my best to achieve successful results at the forthcoming Asian Cup as well as the World Cup in 2026."

Korea Football Association National Team Power Enhancement Committee chair Michael Müller said Klinsmann was the top choice from the final five candidates, and could "handle star players based on their strong personalities and improve the team's performance".