President Lee vows to turn Korea into a global 'cultural powerhouse'
Published: 13 Oct. 2025, 21:45
![President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting with senior aides at the presidential office on Oct. 13. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/10/13/5623519c-9771-4af6-b7e7-424bb7e43098.jpg)
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting with senior aides at the presidential office on Oct. 13. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]
President Lee Jae Myung made culture the cornerstone of his administration’s post-holiday agenda, vowing to turn Korea into a global “cultural powerhouse.”
Presiding over a meeting with senior aides at the presidential office on Monday, Lee said culture now defines both the stature and strength of nations in the 21st century.
“We must accelerate reforms in fiscal policy, taxation and regulation to expand the foundation of cultural content,” he said.
Lee credited the global wave of K-pop, K-dramas and Korean cinema for elevating the country’s standing, saying Korea was now entering “the first gateway to becoming a true cultural powerhouse.” He added that the essence of Korean culture lay in what he called “K-democracy,” a set of values that the world has come to admire.
“From K-pop to K-drama, K-movies, K-food, and K-beauty to K-democracy itself, the world looks to Korea with admiration,” he said.
The presidential office declared this week “K-Culture Week,” underscoring Lee’s determination to make cultural policy a national priority. Earlier this month, Lee appointed Lee Dong-yeon, a professor of the School of Korean Traditional Arts at Korea National University of Arts, as secretary for culture and sports, filling a post that had been vacant since the new government took office four months ago. The appointment signaled an effort to bring academic expertise into the center of policymaking.
According to presidential spokesman Kim Nam-joon, the closed-door meeting focused on five strategic areas: expanding production of cultural content, strengthening historical and cultural authenticity, broadening public access to culture while supporting artists, encouraging convergence between technology and culture and driving innovation in the tourism industry.
Lee also gave direct instructions to prepare “support measures for pure cultural and artistic fields,” Kim said. The president did not, however, order specific programs such as a basic income for artists, a concept he had publicly discussed in June when he met with director Kim Won-seok of the Netflix series "When Life Gives You Tangerines." At the time, Lee described cultural investment as a means to elevate the nation’s level of sophistication.
During the meeting, Lee also raised concerns over the decline of small bookstores, directing aides to explore support measures for the publishing and literary sectors.
Kim said the administration aims to reverse what he called a “backward trend” in cultural spending.
“Even as K-culture entered its golden age, cultural budgets stagnated or shrank,” he said, noting that under the Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in administrations, the government's cultural spending increased 8.2 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, but fell 1.1 percent under former president Yoon Suk Yeol. “The Lee administration has raised next year’s cultural budget by 8.8 percent over the previous year,” he added.
President Lee’s emphasis on culture reflects an effort to project a new form of soft power abroad while cultivating national identity at home. “Culture,” he said, “is not an accessory to economic growth. It is the very expression of who we are.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YOON SUNG-MIN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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