Cultural News

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On today's cultural news, we bring you the story of South Korea's earnings from exporting cultural contents, significantly increasing from last year. Take a look

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South Korea's earnings from exporting cultural contents increased significantly last year. According to the Bank of Korea, the nation recorded a surplus of 2.43 billion U.S. dollars by exporting culture in 2018. It is up 73 percent from a year earlier and the largest-ever surplus, which broke the previous record set in 2016. The nation's trade surplus from cultural exports continued to grow from 2012 to 2016. However, the surplus dwindled in 2017 amid what appears to be China's retaliatory moves against South Korea's deployment of the U.S. antimissile system THAAD. Coupled with Beijing easing anti-Korean bans last year, greater exports of domestic games and K-pop music have played a crucial role in increasing the nation's cultural trade surplus. K-pop boy band BTS has announced that it will add five more dates to its concerts at international stadiums, since all first, originally planned concerts sold out in five international cities, including London and Los Angeles, on March first. As a result, the group will stage 15 shows during the tour, up from the initial ten. It is estimated that the K-pop sensation has sold out a total of 400,000 tickets, given the size of the stadiums. In particular, BTS is drawing attention from British media, as it sold out its concert at Wembley Stadium in just 90 minutes after tickets went on sale. A very small number of international pop artists sold out concerts at Wembley and they include pop legends like Queen, Michael Jackson and Madonna. BTS, as a result, has become the 12th artist to sell out a Wembley show.