Oh sorry, just now saw your questions.
I use the word "expressway" here to mean the roads where there are no 90-degree intersections, and only on- and off-ramps. Even within the US we use the words expressway, highway, and freeway to describe these roads, depending on region. My best knowledge of British English is that yes, those would be the same as 'motorways'.
In and around the Seoul area, progress on local roads is achingly slow with stop-and-go traffic and stoplights for hours. Outside Seoul, much better but you still need to go through every intermediate-size city along the way.
There were some times when the non-freeway roads suddenly became freeways with minimal notice (and didn't show up that way on OSM), only to change back to 'local' roads a short while later, but I just kept riding because navigating a way around those short sections would be a pain in the ass.
Korea is a relatively small country though, so even riding only local roads you can still make reasonable progress in a day.
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