Quota, GPA conversion, apostille, the embassy interview
Uzbekistan is among the countries with one of the largest Embassy Track quotas (the exact number is in the country table annexed to each year's NIIED guidelines). Even so, applications exceed the quota many times over. At the first stage the embassy usually forwards about 1.5 times the quota to NIIED — so passing the embassy interview is not yet the scholarship.
Requirement: a cumulative average above 80 on a 100-point scale, or 2.64 on 4.0, 2.80 on 4.5, 3.12 on 5.0 — OR being in the top 20% of your class. For the Uzbek 5-point scale NIIED has an official conversion table (annexed to the guidelines): a 5-point average of 4.0 corresponds roughly to 80/100, but use the table itself — do not compute your own figure; the embassy recalculates. If in doubt, obtain an official "top 20%" certificate from your school or university — it covers the GPA threshold.
Diploma, transcript, birth certificate and parents' passports — with an apostille or consular legalisation by the Korean embassy. Uzbekistan is a Hague Convention member, so an apostille suffices (for education documents — via the Ministry of Justice / Public Service Centres). The apostille goes on the original or a notarised copy, followed by a notarised translation into English or Korean. Order: original → notarised copy → apostille → translation → notarisation of the translation. The chain takes 2–4 weeks.
The Korean embassy in Tashkent invites those who pass the first screening to an interview — in English or Korean, 10–15 minutes, usually a panel of 2–3. Typical questions: why Korea, why this field, summarise your study plan in one minute, what will you do after graduating, how will you learn Korean, are you ready for hardship (loneliness, weather, food). Do not contradict your personal statement — they have it in front of them. Saying 2–3 sentences in Korean (introducing yourself) is a small but memorable plus.