In China, the Gangnam phenomenon carries a special pique. It has left people asking, Why couldn’t we come up with that?... For now, China’s Gangnam moment seems far off. “In China, culture and the arts develop under the watchful eye of the government, and anything too hip or interesting gets either shut down or bought up."

The stunning success of the video and the song has turned assumptions about nation branding and images of Korean upside down... "Gangnam Style" was an unexpected hit, not a promoted one...This says volumes about efforts to promote Korean cultural products overseas: What Koreans like is not necessarily what foreigners like.

A U.S. diplomat thinks that now is the time for Seoul to focus on further raising Korea’s global profile as an attractive tourist and investment destination because the Korean wave or “hallyu” knows no bounds.

That is why I emphasize welfare, the quality of life and a creative mind. It is time for Korea to keep up with the global trend and lead the way rather than to follow others. Korea is now one of the world’s most advanced economies and for the country to join the ranks of the top five powers, we should think differently.

As of 2010, there were 200 social media websites with billions of users worldwide. It is important to note that for some time now, the private sector has been capitalizing on social media, deploying the best and brightest to link branding, marketing and advertising campaigns and sales of products and services to social media users, applications, and websites.

South Korea faces off against the northern neighbor it is still technically at war with at Olympic table tennis on Saturday in what is sure to be one of the most politically charged contests at London 2012. Uncertainty about secretive North Korea and its new leader and rumored development of nuclear weapons have created a tense backdrop for the six players preparing to meet in the team event.

Growing support is evident for the concurrent usage of both “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan” to refer to the body of water located between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago.

On May 30, the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) at Brookings hosted a discussion examining the use of public diplomacy in Northeast Asia. Leading experts discussed the objectives, practices, opportunities and challenges in public diplomacy for China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.