I see very little difference, if any, between my Korean and the Chinese versions.

I've also played a dozen or so more recent Epiphone-made Chinese Casinos, including the Casino Worn and standard. I have a 2001 Peerless-made Korean Casino, and a 2021 Gibson-made American Casino. But even with the cheaper upgrade it has been a huge difference and it makes playing it way more fun. I can only imagine how much better it'd sound with some Lollar or Kent Armstrong pickups (which, for a set of either of those would cost probably 3x what I paid for the GFS ones). I went with a cheaper option (GFS dogear P90s), but it made a huge difference! Now I set my amp to 'normal' EQ settings and it sounds really really nice. So I ended up just recently replacing the pickups. but still wasn't quite getting the bright sound I was looking for. I'll crank the treble on my amp and completely cut the mids and bass. But I don't have access to anything else. Maybe a better amp would serve me well (I just play out of an Orange Crush 35RT). That plus the metal covers, it sounds pretty muddy and uninspiring. From what I have gathered online, they are WAY overwound (like to the tune of 14k). but I also just happen to like the sound of a wound G a bit better anyway) (I'm sure a proper setup would have also fixed things up and not required a wound G. Plays really well! I have had some slight intonation issues with the G string, but that fixed up nicely after I put a set on with a wound G. The guitar build and quality is actually quite impressive, IMO.

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