Checking my archives:
Jung Sung-ki, "US opposes Seoul’s bid to sell old rifles", Korea Times, 12 Aug 2010
"The U.S. government is opposing Korea’s bid to sell thousands of aging U.S. combat rifles to American gun collectors."
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense "announced the plan last September [2009] as part of efforts to boost its defense budget, saying the export of the M1 Garand and carbine rifles would start by the end of 2009. The U.S. administration put the brakes on the plan, citing "problems" that could be caused by the importation of the rifles."
"A total of 86,000 M1 rifles and another 22,000 carbines were to be sold, as the weapons have been mothballed for about five decades in military warehouses. The per-unit price of the M1 rifle is about $220 and the carbine is more than $140, according to the ministry."
The total number of M1 Carbines supplied to South Korea during and after the Korean War was cited as 700,000 over 10% of the total 6.5 million made. Mostly M1s, some M2s and some M1s with T17 or T18 conversion kits making them select fire. The announcemnet of the plan to export to the US and subsquent stop cited 22,000 carbines, not the whole shebang. The sales were held up because the US government, while initially OKing M1 Garands, described the M1 carbines as assault weapons, easily converted to full auto and feared they would fall in the hands of terrorists or cause accidents. Then the question came up whether the South Korean government owned the guns and was in a position to sell them to US importers, or if the guns technically were military assistance on loan and actually US government property.