Where Korea stands as a quasi-great power and where it must go

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Where Korea stands as a quasi-great power and where it must go

Published: 23 Jan. 2026, 00:01

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Park Myung-lim

The author is a political professor at Yonsei University.

Today’s Korea stands out globally in national power and culture, technology and material capacity, appeal and public favor. As previously argued in an assessment marking the nation’s aspiration toward maturity at the centennial of liberation, Korea’s comprehensive national power has risen to a level just below that of empires and hegemonic states. Subsequent international indices, whether broad or detailed, have repeatedly confirmed this standing.

Visitors marking the National Museum of Korea’s 6 millionth annual attendance pose for a commemorative photo with Director General Yoo Hong-jun at the Uteum Hall of the museum’s permanent exhibition wing in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Dec. 11, 2025. The milestone marked the first time the National Museum of Korea surpassed 6 million visitors in a single year. [KIM KYOUNG-ROK]

Over the past decade and more, while visiting sites that reflect the rise and fall of civilizations, one constant I encountered was Korean products and culture. At a remote heritage site in a country that once produced a universal religion, students on a school outing asked whether I had brought souvenirs of BTS. I felt embarrassed that I had not. In a neighboring region locked in prolonged violent conflict with that country, a young man spoke fluent Korean and said he most enjoyed Korean phones and music.

In a historic city of a country known for its peace and welfare, I arrived at a public square where students were rehearsing an impressive performance to Korean music. Their knowledge of Korean artists and dramas far exceeded mine. One told me he was saving money to visit Korea someday.

At a World Heritage site, children approached me for photographs simply because I was Korean. At a literary museum in Europe, a reader asked me to explain the background of a theme in a Nobel-winning work by Han Kang, which touched on the Jeju April 3 tragedy, leading to a long conversation.

The people I met differed widely in ethnicity, language, religion, civilization, time and place. That diversity itself showed how universal the reception of Korean culture has become. Long ago, Korean travelers abroad took pride in spotting a single Korean electronic device or car. Today, Korean automobiles, electronics, food and mobile phones are too common to count. Less visible sectors, including patents, semiconductors, shipbuilding, defense and shipping, are equally global in scale.

In the breadth, size and height of exports, culture, products and technology, Korea clearly approaches an imperial or quasi-imperial level. For this reason, I have often classified Korea as a quasi-great power. Under the traditional tripartite scheme of great powers, middle powers and small states, such a category scarcely exists. Yet, when technology, products, appeal and culture are added to territory, population, economy and military strength, the notion becomes unavoidable. If today’s technology supply chains and maritime networks are considered alongside ancient Roman roads or the Silk Road, Korea’s quasi-great-power status is firm.

This reality renders obsolete the long-held framework of “the Korean Peninsula and the four surrounding powers.” It no longer works because Korea’s status has changed. The image of a weak Korea encircled by great powers, with its fate decided from outside, no longer applies.

Yet, the general traits of civilizations and empires make Korea’s present moment unsettling. Civilizations and empires take long periods to build but collapse rapidly. They also tend to decline from internal causes. Few exceptions exist to this cycle. The trigger is almost always conflict and stagnation at the peak.

BTS wrapped up its 14-month-long “Love Yourself” world tour with three concerts at Seoul Olympic Stadium in Jamsil, southern Seoul, in October 2019. [BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT]

In this sense, Korea’s quasi-great-power standing and civilizational peak are both a source of pride and a cause for fear. Confidence in the methods and factors that propelled Korea upward has dulled reflection on whether the country is already experiencing stagnation at its summit. That blindness obscures the internal forces of erosion. Korea now ranks among the world’s worst in low fertility and suicide. Growth has stalled, entrenched factional conflict persists and extinction, demographic, regional, educational and social, has become a defining term of the era.

Factional conflict, low fertility, suicide, extinction and stagnation are chronic public problems tied to national survival, yet they have been neglected for too long. Each is a central cause of civilizational collapse. Korea’s politics has neither the capacity to resolve these problems nor a record of improvement when power shifts camps. The combination of flawed institutions and hostile factionalism has only deepened neglect. Reforms focus narrowly on partisan advantage, leaving partial gains unable to reverse national stagnation and decline.

Unless institutions and leadership undergo comprehensive renewal together, Korea’s peculiar mix of partial growth and overall decline will persist. This fear comes from having walked, in opposite directions, across both the core and the periphery of humanity’s greatest empires as they rushed from peak to collapse.

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.