Globalization of Korean Cuisine as a Part of South Korea’s Soft Power Strategy

Since the concept of Soft power was developed by Joseph S. Nye in 1990 it has become very popular in academic circles and later started to be used everywhere. In simple terms it means the ability of a country to get what it wants through its globally attractive image. Gradually the significance of hard power is declining and the impact of soft power is growing. Nowadays struggle between the world’s major states for soft power superiority is similar to economic or military competition among them. South Korea, as a country intended to become an influential global actor, is actively working on its perception abroad and promotion of its national brand. It would be fair to say that during the last years Seoul has succeeded in its ambitious undertakings and expanded Korea’s soft power influence to a certain extent. The most spectacular progress can be seen in the sphere of pop-culture: in South-East Asia and other parts of the world Korea is quite known by its dramas, singers and music bands. To enhance the country’s soft power potential, in 2008 Korean government decided to promote one more element of Korea’s culture - national cuisine. Due to acceleration of world’s globalization process and era of consumption society, food’s potential as a soft power engine rapidly grows. Correctly applied food’s soft power can influence different spheres of country’s development: foster foreign trade and economic investment, revitalize tourism, increase national brand awareness. In her effort to export its culinary heritage, South Korea launched a Korean Food Globalization Campaign aimed to make Korean food one of the top five world cuisines and rise number of Korean overseas restaurants up to 40 000 by 2017. Initiated by former president Lee Myung-bak and a first lady, generously sponsored and organized by many people on governmental level, the program seemed to become very successful. However, in 2013 National Assembly of South Korea admitted a breakdown of Korean food globalization campaign and necessity of its revision. Despite unsatisfactory results, the government believes that recognizable food brand would compliment Korea’s desired image of dynamic and inspiring state, so proceed with attempts to win people’s hearts and minds through stomachs. The paper investigates the program’s goals, achieved results and reasons of failure with following suggestions on improvement for revised Korean food globalization campaign.