Kŭmo sinhwa (New Tales of the Golden Turtle) is generally considered to be the earliest classical fiction in Korea. Nevertheless, popular adaptations of Kŭmo sinhwa cannot easily be found today. Scholars in adaptation or translation studies like Julie Sanders or Linda Hutcheon have argued that adaptations can play an important role in activating the canonical status of a classic. The near absence of adaptations of Kŭmo sinhwa might raise the suspicion that Kŭmo sinhwa might only be considered classic because of its alleged historical significance and not owing to its popularity. I argue that one of the reasons for the relatively few adaptations of Kŭmo sinhwa lies in the genre of the ghost story. With the help of Tim Tangherlini’s actant-relationship model, I will compare the romantic ghost stories in Kŭmo sinhwa to other romantic ghost stories, including Chinese, Japanese, American and Korean short stories, films, and TV series, and investigate to what degree the narrative framework of these stories converge. At the same time, locating divergences among these stories might suggest how bold or creative adaptations of the ghost stories in Kŭmo sinhwa could be possible.