The Korean government is considering creating a 100 billion won (US$73 million) fund dedicated to improving its negative image overseas. It also wants to build a reputation as a “respected and beloved member of the international community,” according to the chairman of the presidential commission on nation branding.
The Culture Ministry of Korea did a phone survey on this subject last month as reported by MBC. Out of one thousand people surveyed, 73 percent of the respondents said that they felt Korea was undervalued overseas as a brand. In follow-up questions, respondents attributed the undervalued national brand to social unrest, the government's insufficient promotion of the national image, and Korea's image as a divided country. When asked for dominant images of Korea in the international arena they responded noting impatience, diligence, kimchi, and national division. So Koreans are unhappy with their perceived view of other country's perceived views of themselves.
Euh Yoon-dae is the first chairman of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, and started his two-year term on January 22. He spoke with the Korea Times on the day he was appointed and said: “Creating a fund is one of the options to ensure successful nation branding. We will discuss finding the best way.” He has plenty of people to discuss things with, since the council has 50 members, including eight ministers and several experts from the country's leading conglomerates.
Many feel that Korea has become a wealthy country, but has not taken on the responsibilities of a wealthy country yet, specifically in offering enough official development assistance (ODA) to underdeveloped nations. Korea was itself on the ODA recipient list until the late 1990s, but now it is a donor. According to the Organization for Economic cooperation and Development, Korea's ODA provision was US$264 million in 2001. It increased to US$672 million in 2007, 0.07 percent of gross national income (GNI). However, major donors often give 0.3 percent of their GNI, so Korea does not yet compare.
National branding is an actual field or practice that attempts to measure, build, and manage the reputation of countries. There is also a Nation Brands Index, first developed by Simon Anholt's collection of surveys and later systematized by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. They have produced an expanded index based on Anholt's earlier work which is now called the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index (NBI).
The country with the highest NBI overall in 2008 was Germany, followed by France and the United Kingdom. Korea came in at 33rd place in 2008, just below Egypt and just above Thailand.
The Lee administration has been speaking about Korea's brand for some time now. President Lee mentioned Korea's national brand during his National Liberation and Founding Day speech on August 15th. He said that the “very first images that come to foreigners' minds are labor-management disputes and street rallies. In this context, if the nation wants to be labeled as an advanced country, it will be necessary to improve its image and reputation significantly.” He was most likely referring to the anti-US beef protests going on at the time, but also Korea's fierce public nationalism directed against Japan for two small rocks in the sea between them, Dokdo, also suggests that Korea is not yet a mature democracy.
Another factor that possibly hurts Korea's image abroad is its xenophobic distrust of foreign investors. There are perceptions that foreign investment firms gain excessive, even predatory, profits from purchasing troubled Korean businesses in the Asian Financial Crisis. The poster child for this phenomenon has been US-based Lone Star Funds. When the investment company announced its decision to sell its majority of shares in Korea Exchange Bank, the government retaliated by launching four different agency investigations. Additionally, at the same time, the finance ministry tried to retroactively apply new tax laws, regulatory agencies paid more attention to foreign firms, and the National Tax Service announced a campaign to audit almost 5,000 different firms which were at least 10% owned by foreign investors.
So while Korea's perception of other countries' perception of them remains low, other countries' perception of Korea is still marked by business dealings and international news events. While every country spends some money in order to manage their international brand, it might take more than US$73 million for Korea to reverse its international image without changing its behavior.
