Corruption scandal casts shadow over Korean Wave

Poll finds Choi-gate to hit Korean Wave harder than THAAD

By Yun Suh-young

Hallyu, or the Korean wave, will sustain a major dent from the unfolding scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, a survey showed Thursday.

The Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE) and public-opinion poll research company Realmeter recently conducted an opinion poll on 1,013 Korean people across the country between ages 15 and 59 to survey their opinion on the topic of hallyu such as its contributors, beneficiaries, influence and future policy direction.

The poll showed the majority of respondents believed the scandal which led to the President’s impeachment will have a negative impact on hallyu and the growth of the culture industry.

Of the respondents, 79 percent answered the scandal will have the largest negative impact on hallyu in China, even more so than the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) at 70 percent. China is rumored to have recently banned hallyu content in response to Korea’s move to allow the USFK to deploy a THAAD battery here.

Despite the concern that these issues will harm the cultural industry’s ecosystem and lead to the reduction of government projects, 68 percent of respondents answered that the administration’s policies for promoting hallyu must be actively continued, though with guarantees of transparency.

“Due to several negative issues that arose recently, the hallyu industry is facing a crisis,” said Kim Deok-joong, secretary general of KOFICE. “However, many Koreans were seen to support an active and transparent cultural promotion policy.”

The majority of respondents supported cultural exchange and social contribution activities (32 percent), followed by enhancing competitiveness of the creativity industry through corporate support (22 percent), overseas marketing and consumer research (18 percent) and legal support for overseas market expansion (13 percent).

The survey revealed that the public considered the main contributors to hallyu until now to have been the media (34 percent) followed by corporate entities (25 percent) and the government (7 percent).

The largest benefit Korea has gained through hallyu according to the survey has been increased recognition and amicable feelings about Korea and its products (52 percent), followed by economic benefits that come from hallyu exports (31 percent), and improved political and diplomatic relations with countries influenced by hallyu (8 percent).

By industry, K-pop and entertainment (50 percent) were the largest beneficiaries of hallyu, followed by cosmetics and fashion (35 percent), broadcasting (34 percent) and tourism (30 percent). Meanwhile, the gaming industry, which takes up a large portion of cultural exports, was seen to have benefited the least (6 percent) according to the survey.