South Korea has spent billions in promoting its "nation brand" via its technology and other attributes. But what has driven up the country's soft power across the world as much as anything is "Gangnam Style," the Korean rapper PSY's galloping horse dance, hipster wannabe clothes and tongue-in-cheek attitude, offset by an irresistible and simple hook that even a three year old could mimic.

Kris Kam, a 28-year-old advertising executive in Singapore, tells me, for example, that when his mother asked him to buy her a new smartphone, she requested a Samsung Galaxy S3 “just like the white one she saw in her favorite Korean drama, My Love, Madame Butterfly.”

"We also carry out online campaigns to boost sales of TVXQ albums here so that they can visit here and have a concert," said Nicole, a 20-year-old education student. She is not alone. Her group is only part of what she called OurGame, a Latin American network of the boy band's fan clubs stretching from Mexico to Peru to Argentina. In Chile alone, there are about 20,000 members of 200 clubs also for Big Bang, 2PM, CN Blue, SHINee, MBLAQ and other artists.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has focused greater diplomatic attention and military resources on East Asia as part of a policy described as a "pivot" or "rebalancing." While American leaders are loath to admit it publicly, this is a response to China's growing influence, particularly Beijing's territorial claims around its borders.

His Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has indicated there might be a review of the decision in 1993 to apologise for direct Japanese coercion of 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries into brothels to serve Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. The so-called "comfort women" issue is not completely settled. In particular, it continues to hang over Japan's relations with South Korea.

A Korean wave is sweeping the world. The secretary-general of the United Nations is Korean, the head of the World Bank is a Korean-American. “Gangnam Style,” a song by the Korean rapper Psy, has become the most watched video on YouTube.

From her statements and pledges during the election, president-elect Park Geun-hye’s plan for North Korea policy appears less antagonistic than the Lee Myung-bak administration’s approach, but not as conciliatory as that of the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

It was reported by South Korean media that Liu Qiang, a Chinese man who threw Molotov cocktails at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in 2011, returned home after the Seoul High Court ruled that Liu's arson attack didn't justify his extradition to Japan. The Chinese side has welcomed the result of the case. Japan has asked for Liu to be extradited several times. The case of Liu involves relations between China, Japan and South Korea.