This study analyzed the factors affecting the axiological semantic characteristics of Korean metaphors from the perspectives of cognitive linguistics and pragmatics. To this end, the related factors were classified into embodied characteristics, morality, and cultural relativistic characteristics. Finally, the face threatening aspects of each factor were analyzed through daily conversation corpus data. According to the results, many of the Korean metaphors with negative meanings were derived from proverbs or idiomatic expressions. In addition, the threat to face caused by metaphors containing cultural negativity was significant. In particular, the metaphorical expressions of animals or objects had a relatively high threat to face, as ontological negativity was added to idiomatic negativity. Nevertheless, the axiological semantic and embodied characteristics inherent in Korean metaphors were largely based on the universality suggested by previous studies. However, despite this universality, learners from other cultures appear to have difficulties in interpreting the meaning of Korean metaphors. Therefore, there is a need to prepare a systematic plan to minimize the pragmatic failure of Korean language learners