As President Lee Jae-myung visited Vietnam, a Vietnamese media expert said South Korea’s soft power is creating a virtuous cycle in which global interest leads to sustained consumption of Korean cultural products. The expert said the Korean Wave is not a passing trend but the result of a strategic alignment among the state, companies and cultural workers.
Vietnamese online outlet Vietnamnet on 21 (local time) published an opinion piece by media expert Nguyen Dinh Thanh analyzing how Korea built its soft power and why it has succeeded. “There is no magic wand behind Hallyu,” the piece said, calling it the product of a systematic national strategy.
◆ Reaching the top tier across cultural fields
Nguyen wrote that South Korea “today is achieving world-class success in every area of the cultural industry.” He cited the K-pop film <K-pop Demon Hunters> being nominated at the 2026 Academy Awards for best animated feature and best original song, and pointed to works including Parasite, Snowpiercer and Squid Game. He said Korea has become a major film power “in just 30 years.”
In music, he wrote, BTS and Blackpink — the girl group with the most YouTube subscribers worldwide — have shown global reach. In webtoons, he said, Naver and Kakao dominate the global digital comics market and serve as a major source of film scripts.
In esports, he said Faker of T1 — dubbed the “Michael Jordan of gaming” — helped make Korea a hub for competitive gaming. In literature, he noted Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, showing Korea can export culture through books as well as film and pop music.
◆ Twelve factors behind Hallyu’s success
The piece listed 12 drivers behind those results: artist training; audience development; training for creators and production staff; changes in thinking and systems for arts education; infrastructure investment; financial investment; systematic cultural promotion; training cultural-industry professionals; investment in supporting industries and logistics; optimized intellectual property management; strong copyright protection; and innovation through digital transformation and the use of AI.
It highlighted artist-development programs such as the Korean Academy of Film Arts, run by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), saying talent training is the first and most essential element of Hallyu’s success.
Nguyen concluded that professional workforce development, investment by government and business, stronger institutions, and arts and cultural education together laid the groundwork for Korea’s rise as a “cultural powerhouse.”
The piece said Korea’s cultural-industry success stems from building a complete, closed value chain, adding that the experience can inspire discussion, cooperation and exchanges to learn from Korea’s specific approach. It said the view of Hallyu as a national strategy — not merely a cultural phenomenon — is spreading in Southeast Asia’s media circles.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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