Arirang TV, an English-language network based in Seoul, is revamping its news and entertainment programs, in hopes of promoting Korea and its culture to a wider international audience. “In Korea, K-culture, which goes beyond K-pop, accounts for a huge part of its nation branding. Our program revamp this time is focusing on those two trends, K-culture and nation branding.”

Seoul has certainly been successful in its soft power efforts globally over the past decade, and has consequentially accrued political capital and financial contracts not only in the Americas but also in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.

In a recent report, SERI analyzed how Korea’s hosting of international events such as the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the 2011 Daegu IAAF World Championships alongside the Korean wave and an upswing in global activities by Korea’s multinational corporations have contributed to Korea’s move up in the rankings of the Nation Brands Index.

"It’s surprising and heartbreaking to see so many people misunderstand and misinterpret our country," says Kang Woo-sung, who is in the forefront of numerous campaigns designed to raise awareness of Korea in the United States. Based in Manhattan, Kang has so far organized efforts to correct confusing menus at the city’s Korean restaurants, and even went as far as introducing Korean ghosts.

South Koreans have long been proud of their “wave,” the soft-power juggernaut of boy bands, movies and products that have penetrated Southeast Asia in a big way in recent years.

What's Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's (METI), then, come up with as a solution? Jumpstarting international interest in its other endeavors, of course — fashion, design, anime. And to put a little umph in its appeal, they named their latest campaign Cool Japan.

The hallyu – or “Korean wave” as the phenomenon is known in Asia – is now spreading to Europe and the US, and spurring South Korea’s export earnings. Cultural exports are...giving the once reclusive country a global cachet for the first time, shaking off the war-torn images of the US comedy M*A*S*H.