Korean is hard to learn, but Chinese is much harder. It might merit its own ultra difficulty class (perhaps with Arabic)
Compared to Chinese, Korean has an alphabet and no tonal qualities. (I believe Japanese is the same). Its written form is also one of the most recent to be developed from scratch (circa 1400AD)
Chinese has two different writing types, 4 or 7 distinct tones, no alphabet and dozens of regional variations in how it is spoken. When you encounter a new written Chinese character you can sometimes learn its meaning from context but generally have no idea how it is pronounced. This might lead to a penalty on self or immersion learning without an instructor.
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