Is Korean content past its peak? Culture minister answers

South Korea's culture minister spoke up about the need for more cultural infrastructure support as Korean content continues to dominate the world.

He said this during his first media roundtable held today, where he shared his cultural policy aims down the road.

Our culture correspondent Park Kun-woo was there.

We might be in a golden era of Korean content with an ongoing global boom, but this may already be past its peak.

That was said by Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young at his first official media roundtable in Seoul on Thursday.

He said commentary coming from the sector is dire, citing the film industry as a representative example, where this year's domestic cinema audience is expected to shrink by around a half year-on-year.

"The number of movies with production costs over 3 billion won is less than 20 this year, compared to about 100 in the past, due to dried-up investment. The ecosystem is collapsing."

He added that even star directors now turn to overseas streaming platforms for funding, as government support alone is insufficient.

Projects branded "Made with Korea" are also stalling due to tight budgets, despite strong global interest in collaborative works.

Chae also stressed the need for more K-pop infrastructure.

"Japan has 34 large-scale concert venues with more than 10-thousand seats. We have only 8. It isn't good for the home country of K-pop to have such limited infrastructure."

In order to create a better environment, he said making efforts to increase budgets was crucial.

Noting that next year's cultural budget will jump by around 9 percent, he said that still puts Korea in the mid-to-low ranking among OECD countries in terms of cultural spending.

While vowing to do his best to further increase the budget in the near future, he said there's hope thanks to strong Korean content.

"There may always be crises, but aren't we the people who always find an opportunity in these situations, and achieve our goal. Stray Kids has made history on the Billboard charts with its seventh consecutive No. 1 album. The movie "No Other Choice" might even win big this weekend in Venice, where it received a 9-minute standing ovation. We're flooded by this kind of news every day."

The minister added he will do his best to seize this "golden opportunity" to establish Korea as a leading cultural powerhouse.

Park Kun-woo, Arirang News.