The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol'

  • 3

    Han Suk-kyu on return of 'Dr. Romantic' with Season 3

  • 5

    Genesis launches 2023 G90 sedan

  • 7

    Do Kwon, Korea's crypto 'genius' turned disgraced fugitive

  • 9

    North Korea will pay price for reckless provocations, warns Yoon

  • 11

    N. Korea tests 'underwater nuclear attack drone,' cruise missiles for nuclear warhead: KCNA

  • 13

    Kakao Entertainment, Colombia Record team up for IVE's North American debut

  • 15

    Second daughter of Daesang chairman promoted to vice president

  • 17

    Over 70% of firms unwilling to embrace longer workweek

  • 19

    Crypto founder Do Kwon is indicted in US, following Montenegro arrest

  • 2

    Zoo shares sad story of what caused Sero the zebra to escape

  • 4

    Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour

  • 6

    Kyochon heralds 30,000 won fried chicken era

  • 8

    Churches, Seoul gov't unite to fight low birthrate

  • 10

    What's next for Terra founder Do Kwon?

  • 12

    Hybe to sell SM shares to Kakao following failed takeover bid

  • 14

    Burnout: Cardiothoracic surgery residents work 102 hours a week

  • 16

    Montenegro charges crypto fugitive Do Kwon with forgery

  • 18

    BTS' Jimin releases solo album

  • 20

    More companies adopt electronic voting amid increase in shareholder activism

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Sun, March 26, 2023 | 22:01
Donald Kirk
Branding Korea by Psy
Posted : 2013-01-03 17:41
Updated : 2013-01-03 17:41
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By Donald Kirk

LONDON ― There was a time when Korea was best known overseas for Samsung gadgetry and Hyundai cars. Now Korea is permeating the global consciousness in ways that would have seemed unlikely if not impossible two or three years ago.

The latest proof positive is a New Year's eve feature in The Times ― that is, the venerable London paper ― headlined ''All you really needed to know about 2012." There, at the top of the page, are two faces familiar not only to Koreans but apparently to people everywhere else. ''The chubby Koreans with global influence," reads the caption. ''Kim Jong Un v. Psy."

Comparisons are tempting. Both seem charismatic, both are young, and both are overweight ― Kim Jong-un more so than Psy. The feature credits the former with having ''finally launched a rocket" that ''nobody apart from North Korea was happy about." More to the point, it adds, helpfully, ''There are even rumours that he's got his wife up the duff, so good going, you tubby little weirdo." The next line is still nastier: ''Shame about the thousands of starving North Koreans."

The notes on Psy are more complimentary. He's ''the Gangnam Style guy" whose ''catchy K-Pop masterwork became the most watched video on You Tube ever, with more than a billion views." He's ''the reason you now see people doing the ‘riding-a-horse' dance in nightclubs" and ''at toddlers' birthday parties." For good measure, the article adds he's ''had meetings with Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, and in November spoke at the Oxford Union."

I wasn't aware that a meeting with the ever genial, diplomatically bland Ban Ki-moon was all that big a deal, but the article tells us, ''Basically, he has more pull than most world leaders." So the WINNER, in capital letters, in a blue circle signifying, I guess, a blue ribbon, has to be Psy as he's ''Probably influential enough to nudge the 38th parallel a few miles north."

Never mind the simplistic view of the confrontation across the Demilitarized Zone. The point is that Psy has given Korea a recognition value that bureaucrats in Seoul could only dream about with all their talk about ''branding" the country's image. If Psy is well known among British readers, he's better known in the U.S. where he led thousands in singing and dancing and prancing on New Year's eve with the same gusto with which I saw him performing on the plaza in central Seoul and then after the F1 grand prix near Mokpo.

But popular branding does carry the risk of distortions that will seem ludicrous back in Korea. Over the weekend, I came across a travel article in the Independent Magazine, a supplement of the Independent newspaper, listing one travel destination for every letter in the alphabet. There was ''K" in big orange script for Korea. ''That's right," says the article, ''the home of K-pop and nifty consumer electronics is set to become the must-visit tourist destination of 2013."

Again Psy seems to be vital to name recognition ― all against the backdrop of North Korea's fearsome missiles. The synergy could hardly be more explosive ― "rap artist PSY's distinctive dance moves in the viral hit ‘Gangnam Style' are expected to send a wave of K-pop-obsessed posh packers rocketing toward the country as fast as a North Korean ballistic missile." Gangnam, we're told, is ''the hip Seoul neighbourhood that inspired the track" even if a guide book says it's ''utterly devoid of tourist sites."

Don't let that bother you, the article advises. The ''adventurous 2013 traveller" can still see such wonders as ''the towering ‘Great Gates' of Seoul" ― these would be Dongdaemun and Namdaemun though the latter, last time I looked, is still under reconstruction from the fire that some nut set a few years ago in an outburst of social protest.

No one would debate the article's suggesting visits to ''the historic city of Gyeongju and the semi-tropical paradise of Jeju Island," but you have to love the hyperbole of the final piece of advice. ''Or if you are really brave, how about popping over the DMZ to the so-called ‘Hotel of Doom' in Pyongyang." That would be the never-completed Ryugyong Hotel that ''will tower over the impoverished city's skyline at 105 storeys high" and ''finally be ready for guests in 2013." Surely, the article asks, ''that's a tourist site worth waiting for?"

Right, I'm booking a room ― the moment it's possible to pop over the DMZ and tell the North Korean soldiers on the other side, I'm here and when's the next bus to Pyongyang?

Columnist Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has visited North Korea nine times and stood on both sides of the DMZ at Panmunjom – but has yet to get there by crossing the line. He's at kirkdon@yahjoo.com.

 
Top 10 Stories
1Kyochon heralds 30,000 won fried chicken era Kyochon heralds 30,000 won fried chicken era
2Yoon's labor reform drive sputters due to controversy over lengthening workweek Yoon's labor reform drive sputters due to controversy over lengthening workweek
3Horace N. Allen: Joseon's foreign royal physician Horace N. Allen: Joseon's foreign royal physician
4Apple Pay service limited by lack of NFC terminalsApple Pay service limited by lack of NFC terminals
5From mines to mobility: 140-year-old partnership between Germany and Korea From mines to mobility: 140-year-old partnership between Germany and Korea
6Chun Doo-hwan's grandson to apologize to victims of Gwangju massacreChun Doo-hwan's grandson to apologize to victims of Gwangju massacre
7South Korea speeds up full-fledged deployment of US anti-missile batterySouth Korea speeds up full-fledged deployment of US anti-missile battery
8Unrest on the Island of World Peace in 1903 Unrest on the Island of World Peace in 1903
9Foreign minister hosts Iftar dinner for Muslims in Korea Foreign minister hosts Iftar dinner for Muslims in Korea
10Firstborns account for record-high 63% of newborns Firstborns account for record-high 63% of newborns
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol' Kim Min-gyu, Go Bo-gyeol bid farewell to 'The Heavenly Idol'
2Han Suk-kyu on return of 'Dr. Romantic' with Season 3 Han Suk-kyu on return of 'Dr. Romantic' with Season 3
3Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour Kim Nam-gil to embark on Asia fan-meeting tour
4Two curators to lead Korean pavilion at Venice Art Biennale in 2024 for first time Two curators to lead Korean pavilion at Venice Art Biennale in 2024 for first time
5[INTERVIEW] How ATEEZ achieved worldwide success INTERVIEWHow ATEEZ achieved worldwide success
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group