SOUTH KOREA’S SOFT

POWER STRATEGY

2022
CLAUDIA PEÑA CERRATO
TÉCNICAS DE INVESTIGACIÓN SOCIOLÓGICAS
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to contribute to the framework of literature on the soft power strategy of South
Korea, focusing on its development through the years in order to overcome geopolitics. Equally,
we highlight the impact of South Korea’s strategy to position themselves in the international
relations arena. The paper follows a direct approach to the use of sports mega-events, the music
industry as well as empirical data on the topic of South Korea. Our findings confirm that South
Korea’s soft power strategy has allowed the country to be part of the international atmosphere
and be recognized as the leader of soft power in the international framework.

INTRODUCTION
South Korea has not always been a strong power in the international field because of its
neighbors -China, Japan, and the US-. The intention of the author is determining through this
paper if South Korea has been able to overcome geopolitics and position itself in the
international framework. Through the study, several aspects and points of view will be
considered: the reasons of the choice, positioning moments in the international arena, the
relations US-South Korea, its role in the Covid-19 crisis, as well as the use of cultural diplomacy
to hide inequalities among its citizens.

LITERATURE REVIEW

South Korea’s position in the international relations framework has been a hot topic among
scholars since its escalation. Despite its size, South Korea cannot deny its privileged position
along with several resources (coal, iron, gold, silver…), as well as its economic and social
developed position.
The country, however, had not always been relevant for the international atmosphere until the
end of the World War II (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1953-1957) which affect more directly
the country and therefore its citizens. This battle ended because United States-proposed
ceasefire. As a result of this war a number of three to four million people died, mostly civilians
(Stack, 2018).
It was not until the end of the 80s when an economic boost was produced leading to the
consolidation of the country as a crucial actor in the regional and worldwide arena.

Its geopolitics position, nevertheless, is nothing but a barrier for achieving a its own interests.
Three different states play an active role in this problematic, these are China, Japan, and the
United States.
Firstly, China’s dispute is currently focused on the Dokdo islands, which have been reclaimed for
both governments as their owns.
Secondly, Japan, which grew as the new power in the Asian continent, has been undermined by
the development of South Korea because of its Soft Power strategy pointing out the switch of
countries for the Asian Winter Games.
Last but not least, the most important issue which South Korea has to deal with is its regional
geopolitics consolidation between the two Great Powers, China and the US. It is worth
mentioning that discrepancies between China and South Korea grew with the support of the US
in the country with the maintenance of troops in its territory after the Armistice of 1953.

All these events lead the government to bet for the implementation of a Soft Power strategy
which has resulted in the ‘Hallyu’ phenomenon, or more commonly known as the Korean Wave.
The country is supported by ten cultural symbols -national traditional costume, writing, cuisine,
temples, martial arts, tea, dance of masks, Confucian sanctuary, Seorksan and world-famous
artists- which not only are popular within the country but also abroad.
DISCUSSION
The Reason South Korea Implementing Soft Power Strategy

After two wars (World War II and the Korean War) which directly touched the country, South
Korea had to mold itself in order to enter in the international arena. To achieve its objectives,
the country followed, principally, Lee Soo-man’s theories to improve the country and its Soft
Power through leisure, especially music and television leading to the popularity of K-Dramas and
K-Pop. Due to the support of the US in the country, Korean culture started to be familiarized to
the North American, combining the traditional style of the country with the modern of the
Americans.
However, it was not until 1988 when the music industry started to develop and the country saw
a change “And thanks to the growth of the economy and freedom, Korean arts and
entertainment were soon recovering.” (James, 2014). In fact, the country’s popularity grew such
exponentially that that same year Seoul held the Seoul Olympics, an ideal event to attract and
increase tourism leading to the increase in the number of Hallyu consumers; as the Vice
President of the Games Operations of the PyeongChang Winter Games, May, 2019 claimed:
“Hosting the Seoul Olympics Games was a great moment to let the world know about Korea”.

Positioning Moments International Relations Arena

During the 90s, South Korea’s foreign affairs main objective was focused on achieve a bigger
influence in the definition of the international agenda; its adhesion and participation in the G20
was the necessary boost to assume the role of a power in development and democratization.
This event held in 2010 confirmed its leading position claiming “"Shared growth beyond the
crisis."
This process has a crucial impact on the regional integration of the State pointing out the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Korea’s relations with the Asian region are
marked by the economic field. In fact, these last twenty years, the group of Asiatic development
economies has achieved and maintain records of the increase of GDP (between 1990 and 2009,
they achieved an annual growth of 2,0% within the group of countries of the OCDE).
The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in 2012 demonstrated, once again, South Korea’s position in
the international arena and its fight for the achievement of democracy and peace.
Two years later, because of the 25º anniversary of relations between ASEAN and the Asiatic
southeast, a special summit was held. In order to commemorate it, the ASEAN Culture House in
Haeundae was opened in 2017.
Moreover, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Green Growth Institute headquarters are
located in Seoul promoting a vision of international cooperation.
As mentioned before, G20 was a boost for the country as it increased the number of diplomatic
representations and cooperation abroad. Nowadays, South Korea has diplomatic relations with
191 countries, active embassies in 115 countries, 46 consular offices and 5 permanent missions
with international organizations.

Relations US-South Korea

In the recent years, the US-South Korea relations have had some ups and downs. After the
Armistice of 1953 between North Korea and the US, the latest decided to maintain its troops in
South Korea. However, in 2017, when the former American President Donald Trump travelled
to South Korea confirmed it compromised with its bilateral agreement, increasing the distance
between China. Nevertheless, this supposes an excessive military and security dependency
between the US-South Korea leading to the approach of China and Korea, as it is it major
commercial ally, representing the 25% of its exportations -in comparison to the 10% of the US-.
President Biden is focused on expanding that military alliance as the core of its relations with
the innovative approach to the importance of technology.

Covid-19 Position

Covid-19 crisis marked the last South Korea’s National elections in 2020 when Moon achieved
the power. This pandemic was rapidly and successfully confronted by Moon administration
providing test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), apart from that, promotion of the
very same Moon in public health was another strategy used to minimize the number of cases.
Despite being considered one of the model countries to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, Korea
failed to be in the first line of donations and funds for a vaccine. The country, even though its
first fast movements, slowly purchased vaccines being only a 15% of its population fully
vaccinated (Ritchie, Mathieu et all, 2022).

Cultural Diplomacy
K-Pop

One of the most important areas in the Soft Power strategy of South Korea is the music industry
and everything related to it. K-pop is not only about music but also about choreographies,
clothing, idols, merchandising, among others. K-pop was officially born in 1992 when the
traditional music of the country was combined with other rhythms and did not stop since then.
John Lie mentioned:
“For the purposes of making sense of K-Pop, that quantum leap was the emergence of Seo Taiji
and the Boys in 1992. It was one of the first groups to incorporate rap music and hip-hop
sensibilities to South Korean popular music”.
K-Pop has drastically increased its popularity around the world starting to take the first steps in
2003 around the Asian countries and reaching its peak in 2012 in the Western countries with
the singer PSY’s and his song ‘Gangam Style’. After a survey conducted in 2021 about the
Popularity of South Korean pop music worldwide, the results showed that of the 18 countries
asked, a 39% of respondents stated that the genre K-pop was “very popular” in their country
(Statista, 2022).
Since the arrival to the Western countries, K-pop has had such a huge impact -over all among
teenagers- that not only music is being provided but also events are held, merchandising sold,
among others, which boost the interest for the country apart from enriching K-Pop
entertainment companies -being SM Entertainment who reached the highest sales revenues in
2018 thanks to manage groups of idols such as EXO-.
Such impact has had the K-Pop industry that idols have been promoting values and creating
awareness about the current issues in the world. In 2018, the worldwide known group BTS was
invited to the UN in order to promote Generation Unlimited -a project whose aim is educate
young people and provide vocational training-; this same group has recently visited the White
House to speak about anti-Asian hate crime. This is only an example of how the number of actors
in diplomacy has also increased as celebrities, thanks to their influence, can take part of it.

Sport

South Korea hosting the 1988 Olympic Games was just the start of its long career holding big
sport events. This impacted in three different ways: domestically, regionally, and internationally.
Domestically, the country started its way through a more industrialization process backed up
with the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, it is imperative to point out that the event was used to
emphasize ‘nationalism–nationalism and national unity grounded in traditional Korean loyalty
and patriotism’.
Regionally, Japan-South Korea’s relationship worsen because of the creation to raise their status
not only in a regional level but with a global recognition.
Internationally, South Korea opened up as a new power emerging expressing their identity
globally. The 1988 Olympic Games lead to the introduction of the traditional South Korea’s
martial arts, Taekwondo in the Olympic Summer Games. It cannot be denied that South Korea
is a clear example of using a sports mega-event to expand their state’s capabilities in
international relations (Grix, Jeong, Kim, 2021).

Hidden Inequalities

South Korea has witnessed an increased in inequalities among its citizens. In fact, they are those
who have developed the Spoon Class Theory in order to explain that we part from a social class
from which is very difficult to get rid of; moreover, these social classes pass from a generation
to another. These inequalities are presented in Korean films (Parasite) and even in the K-Pop
industry (song Baepsae from BTS). Nowadays, the differences between classes have grown from
4.9 to 5.5 times (Yong Anh, 2016).
To add duel to fire, the high pressure of the education and economic system have led the country
to be positioned in the high part of the statistics of suicide in the world -being the fourth country
with 28.6 per 100k people (WHO, 2019).
These figures confirm once again that not all that glitters is gold, and even though South Korea’s
Soft Power strategy has opened the country up in the international atmosphere, inequalities are
a side effect of this phenomenon.

CONLCUSION

This study has reflected the position of South Korea in the international framework reached
because of the Soft Power strategy used by the different governments since the end of the
World War II and the Korean War. Analyzing the reasons of choice of the country to implement
this strategy instead of opting for the hard power method and how that lead to the positioning
moments in the international relations arena. Its adhesion to the G20, the ASEAN and the
establishments of several headquarters in Seoul have boosted the view of the country among
other powers, especially with the US. South Korea has also been considered a leader during
the Covid-19 crisis, above all, in the Asian region. However, inequalities have been hidden with
the use of cultural diplomacy such as the K-pop industry and the sports mega-events -studied
domestically, regionally and internationally- which have been recognized and positively seen
by the international atmosphere without considering the side effects of this phenomenon.
With this study we can conclude that South Korea has been able to open itself up and be
considered leader in the Soft Power international panorama.
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