Was Confucius Korean?

My friend Lei told me today that two Koreans in his lab told him, face to face, that Confucius was Korean and that it was Koreans who invented Chinese characters (Hanzi). I remember that I saw online news about this. But this came out from the mouth of two well educated Korean young men who are Ph.D. candidates, it’s pretty shocking. One of them, according to Lei even said to Lei that the three provinces in Northeast China was their territory and then he went: “Give them back to Korea!” I thought that Lei was kidding when he told me this but he said it’s true. I asked Lei how he replied. The answer he gave was: “Ok, if you want, take them tomorrow.” How funny was the situation, but of course the Korean Ph.D. candidate took it very seriously?