President Lee Jae-myung speaks during a ministry briefing on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and others at the Blue House guesthouse on the 5th. Yonhap News
President Lee Jae-myung’s interest in culture, revealed during the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s second-half presidential work briefing held on the 5th, can be interpreted as concentrated on “youth” and “global.” Beyond expanding youth job creation through startups in the cultural sector, the message is that culture itself should help the entire industry expand globally.
Compared with the Culture Ministry’s work briefing last December, the briefing time was shorter, but it can be seen as clarifying the direction this government is pursuing. In fact, President Lee promised active fiscal support for culture and called for stronger efforts from public officials. Individually, he expressed interest in film, publishing, tourism, and soccer.
First, in specific areas, President Lee asked about the current state of the film market and confirmed that more film budget would be provided next year. He also expressed regret at the Culture Ministry’s explanation that the total number of domestic moviegoers, which reached 220 million in 2019, is expected to fall to just 130 million this year. President Lee said, “Next year’s film budget will be more than double this year’s.”
President Lee then examined whether the budget for translating publications into foreign languages was sufficient. He countered, “Don’t we need translation to enter overseas markets?” President Lee stressed, “Overseas expansion of domestic (publishing) works seems very important. Interest in and expectations for the Republic of Korea are truly rising, and while that manifests as tourism, it also leads to demand for literary works or demand for Korean products, boosting exports well. In Latin America (which I recently visited), cosmetics exports reportedly surged 200-300%.”
However, in tourism, he took interest in the fact that the Korea Tourism Organization has a total of 30 overseas branches, saying, “Why do the Tourism Organization’s overseas branches also do the work that private travel agencies should do? Check the specific work performance of the corporation’s overseas branches.” He instructed, “Overall, our country’s institutions seem to have too many overseas branches. Let’s check whether they are really necessary.”
Regarding sports, particularly the Korea Football Association, he emphasized democratic composition, transparent operation, and fairness in accounting.
Overall, he focused on expanding support for the cultural sector and its utilization. That is, he expressed interest in using the cultural industry for youth policy and called for the Culture Ministry’s response. President Lee said that day, “Culture and arts require rather delicate support. That’s the nature of culture and arts, isn’t it? Too diverse and independent. Hidden somewhere and little known, yet important. (omitted) We are now agonizing a lot over youth policy, but the era of creating good jobs for young people is now setting, and we must open an era of something creative, of startups, and the culture and arts sector appears to have great potential. So does tourism.”
While satisfied with recent achievements, he noted, “When productivity strengthens in the artificial intelligence (AI) era, the desire for culture will grow and rise. Culture too will take an important place as an industry. It is now appearing as K-pop, but that is not enough.” He added, “It is right that support for the culture and arts sector should be greatly expanded. We are becoming a culturally acclaimed nation worldwide, but government investment in the cultural sector remains weak. I even wonder how such recent cultural achievements of conquering the world were possible on this barren land. If Kim Koo saw this, he would be astonished.”
He continued, “The consumers of cultural policy are too subdivided, located in too many diverse and unseen places. No matter how much we pay attention, there are many people in the culture and arts area who say, ‘Why don’t you pay attention to me?’ It’s because they are too diverse. Too diverse and too many. Even when I try to hold something like a discussion with the culture and arts community, I have no idea whom I should meet. If I meet this group, they say, ‘Why did you leave me out?’ In the end, you have to meet them all, but if you meet them all, it’s a very difficult area where even 365 days a year would not be enough.”
That day, the president proposed or instructed three specific items. First, accepting open applications from all citizens for the use of the culture and arts sector budget, along with recruiting publication translators through a general crowd public offering method, and identifying and strengthening the work status of the Korea Tourism Organization’s overseas branches.
Within the work briefing, some in the industry interpret that his interest in film was related to the “Lumière Summit,” a film and video summit to be held with President Emmanuel Macron in France this September. In any case, Korean film must do well for President Lee to have something to talk about.
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young delivers a briefing during a ministry report session presided over by President Lee Jae-myung at the Blue House guesthouse on the 5th. Yonhap News
Also, in that day’s work briefing, the overseas export of Korean publications through translation of literature and other publications, along with the resulting spread of Korean culture, and the need for large travel agencies that can promote Korean tourism locally overseas, drew attention. The football association issue has recently become a major issue that the president has no choice but to address personally.
Speaking of cultural diversity, President Lee also expressed regret about existing cultural policy, saying, “In the culture and arts sector, no matter how well you do it with a supplier’s mindset, you cannot satisfy consumers and won’t hear good things. Meeting them directly also has its limits.”
As an alternative, he proposed accepting open applications from citizens for the Culture Ministry’s fiscal spending and setting next year’s budget accordingly. He said, “How about opening it publicly, receiving proposals from culture and arts consumers in the field, weighing priorities, and going through a process of selection? On how to provide budget support for the culture and arts sector, how about receiving proposals from consumers and, among them, weighing importance, scale, and priorities to make selections? You gain new ideas and reduce complaints.”
Meanwhile, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young announced at that day’s Culture Ministry work briefing that, under the vision of “K-Culture, Sports and Tourism that Revives Regions and Surges to the World,” the ministry would pursue six key tasks: ▲ strengthening the foundation of a cultural powerhouse ▲ intensively fostering the K-culture industry as an engine of economic growth ▲ innovating regional (local) settlement conditions through culture, sports and tourism ▲ building a foundation for 40 million foreign tourists ▲ K-sports that all citizens participate in together ▲ innovating citizen-centered policy communication.
First, to strengthen the foundation of a cultural powerhouse, the Culture Ministry decided to expand the creative safety net for artists. To this end, it plans to expand support so that artists can also receive social insurance at the level of ordinary office workers, such as industrial accident insurance and the national pension, and strengthen financial support such as loans for living stability funds. It will also expand investment in basic arts and indie content. It will make remuneration for creative activities realistic and pursue the introduction of various support methods beyond the existing public offering and review methods. The “Youth Culture and Arts Pass” will also be fully expanded. Plans are underway to increase the eligible age range and beneficiary rate, and to expand the genres available for use.
In addition, to intensively foster the K-culture industry as a future core growth industry, it will strengthen investment in key genres. In the film sector, it will expand overseas expansion of competitive works through support for international co-productions and the hosting of the “Lumière Summit” (September 2026). It will further expand financial support such as loans, guarantees and funds, which stand at 1.5 trillion won this year, and strengthen strategic investment centered on global blockbuster intellectual property (IP). In response to the AI transformation, it plans to support the use of AI in creation and production sites, and to overhaul the copyright system, including preparing a standard contract for learning data.
It will hold “FANOMENON,” a large-scale K-culture event, in December next year to consolidate cultural capabilities across various fields such as K-pop, food and beauty, and establish K-culture hubs in major overseas base cities. It will expand the overseas expansion of everyday-life industries such as food, beauty and fashion to raise the international influence of K-culture. It will also expand cultural official development assistance (ODA) to strengthen the cultural sector’s international role.
The Culture Ministry
