South Korea, which we know as a country famous for its unique culture and food, has different strengths in building South Korea itself. its growth and development in terms of the economy certainly cannot be separated from the existence of Multinational Corporation (MNC) companies such as Hyundai and KIA then there are also Samsung, LG and Lotte. But besides that, the development of the Korean Wave is one of the drivers, the presence of the Korean Wave dominates important sectors of life, such as fashion, culinary, music, film which then becomes a phenomenon in all foreign countries ranging from Asia to Europe.Seeing this with the Korean wave phenomenon to all countries in the world, through the perspective of international relations we can see how South Korea with its soft power can spread its culture indirectly through this Korean wave. 

      The spread of which we can find in the form of advertisements that have beautiful K-pop artists as advertising stars who ultimately encourage interest and purchasing power from the public, this certainly applies also in the music industry where Korea has a distinctive feature in its music industry with the presence of girl bands and boy bands that have unique faces and dance abilities. 

     The existence of South Korea is able to dominate various parts of the world, although in its development South Korea has experienced a monetary crisis but South Korea itself was able to rise and bring its culture as a force in building its own country. the formation of South Korean government policies in the form of financial support for its cultural industries has greatly helped its development. 

    The government provided a subsidy of 40 billion won in 2007 and investment funds of around 2 trillion won in 2008 so that the development of the Korean wave is more widespread and able to compete with Hollywood. The Korean wave was able to make the export value reach USD 1,765.40 million and reach 1,703,495 tourists (South Korea Export) and tourism contributed 5.1% to the 2015 GDP (Republic of Korea-Travel & Tourism Total Contribution to GDP). One example is the South Korean drama series “Descendants of the sun” in 2016 starring Korean top artists Song Hye-kyo and Song joong-ki achieved a rating of 38.8% and exported to 32 countries in the world with a profit of US 2.6 billion with several OST tracks, merchandise etc..

In the field of music, many music bands such as EXO, BTS, SNSD and several other bands have successfully held concerts in various countries with fast ticket sales and audiences from various countries.

The Korean wave is an important instrument for the South Korean tourism sector, where the Korean wave is a means of promoting South Korean tourism organizations where there are travel agents who provide tour packages to popular South Korean destinations which increases the number of foreign tourists and increase foreign exchange, besides that tourists not only visit but are interested in learning about South Korean culture which is then brought back to their country so that the culture is spread and recognized by the people of other countries.

But the presence of the Korean wave is also inseparable from the emergence of negative and positive impacts. cultural shifts become an important point in the country replacing the original cultures that exist in the country, as we know K-pop fans are dominated by teenagers, teenagers who are affected by the impact of the Korean wave are reluctant to learn and preserve their own domestic culture because they are more interested in South Korean culture that has been packaged into a modern form of Korean wave. In addition, the lifestyle of teenagers who are very fond of K-pop artists makes them willing to spend money without questioning the nominals to buy merchandise as a form of support for their idols. This can lead to consumptive behavior for teenagers and delusional attitudes. But apart from the negative and positive impacts, South Korea is quite successful in maintaining its culture and utilizing it.

The existence of government intervention that is aware and supportive of the uniqueness and richness of its culture makes Korean wave known to all foreign countries. The increasing wave of tourism with the role of the Korean wave makes the whole world community get to know more about South Korea. It can be concluded that Soft power provides great benefits to all sides of the South Korean State. Of course this can be emulated by all of us as a form of preserving national culture which is rich and diverse so that it is better known by the world community and is used to build State sectors in the economy, homeland industries that have more potential to spread national cultures to the whole world by simply maximizing the culture of the State itself.