DP frontrunner Lee Jae-myung uveils K-content policy to up market to $211B

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DP frontrunner Lee Jae-myung uveils K-content policy to up market to $211B

Published: 18 Apr. 2025, 15:43

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Lee Jae-myung speaks at a meeting with K-content companies at Coop Soilab in Daegu on April 18. [NEWS1]

Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Lee Jae-myung on Friday unveiled a set of cultural policy pledges under the name “Soft Power BIG 5,” vowing to grow the K-content market to 300 trillion won ($211 billion) and expand cultural exports to 50 trillion won by 2030.

“Our cultural budget amounts to only 1.33 percent of the total national expenditure this year,” Lee wrote in a Facebook post. “We will significantly increase it to a level befitting a cultural powerhouse. We will fully support the global expansion of K-food, K-beauty, K-pop, K-drama and K-webtoons.”

“The new government will give wings to the K-content wave created by workers in the cultural and arts sectors,” Lee wrote. “We will strengthen national support across the entire K-content production process. We will foster K-culture platforms and systematically support all stages from content creation to global market expansion and distribution.”

“We will expand incentives across the board — including research and development, policy financing and tax benefits — to support the sustainable growth of the K-content industry,” Lee further pledged. “We will also develop the webtoon industry into a core pillar of K-culture. Tax benefits currently applied to video content will be extended to webtoons, and we will actively support small businesses seeking to enter overseas markets.”

Lee further promised to “create an environment where cultural artists can focus solely on their creative work,” adding, “we will build a stable ecosystem by providing creative funds and workspaces, expand talent training and support systems, and establish specialized institutions.”

Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Lee Jae-myung greets supporters before a meeting with K-content companies at Coop Soilab in Daegu on April 18. [NEWS1]

He also vowed to “firmly block the illegal distribution of content,” and to “combat overseas piracy through international cooperation to protect intellectual property rights.”

Lee said he would “strengthen support for the humanities to solidify the foundation of a cultural powerhouse,” and promised to greatly expand support for writing and publishing in the humanities and promote humanities education.

Referencing the global popularity of Korean content such as the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” (2021-2024), “When Life Gives You Tangerines” and novelist Han Kang’s Nobel recognition, Lee wrote, “what succeeds in Korea now succeeds in the world,” adding that “the taste of the Korean people has become the world’s standard — the future of a cultural powerhouse envisioned by Kim Gu [the leader of the Korean independence movement] is now unfolding before our very eyes.”

“Former President Kim Dae-jung said that ‘the 21st century is the era of culture,' and the cultural industry will become the core industry of the 21st century,” wrote Lee. “Our predecessors always dreamed of becoming a cultural powerhouse. Now we have the ability to turn that dream into reality. I will give wings to that dream of a true Korea.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY LEE JI-YOUNG [[email protected]]