Welcome to 2026, the year of the Red Horse! I know, technically, we have to wait for the lunar new year and some may prefer the Fire Horse moniker but anyway, here's an AI generated beast for all of you:
Change, bold choices, that's what's supposedly in store for the new year.
Korea experienced its share of changes in 2025, but they were expected:
- YOON Suk-yeol's impeachment was confirmed
- LEE Jae-myung managed to elude justice and get elected
- Korea has de facto become a single-party nation, and not the party the disgraced president wanted
A single party nation?
YOON's party - which never really was his - is in shambles. And that's not the first time: the PPP failed to truly reform itself (beyond rebranding) after PARK Geun-hye's impeachment, and it doesn't seem willing to evolve following YOON's either. In fact, this election losing machine succeeded only in 2022, when the DPK led the national shoot-yourself-in-the-foot contest with a LEE Jae-myung ensnared in scandals and a then highly unpopular president MOON Jae-in creating a most unlikely candidate (YOON) that had no choice but to join the other side... Today, this party doesn't seem to have any future.
Meanwhile, to secure his own future, LEE Jae-myung managed to seize both the stick (full control of justice) and the carrot (direct control of finance). In the most Trumpian fashion, he's now enjoying the retribution time of his life, siccing justice even at OH Se-hoon, who had no involvement whatsoever in YOON's martial law disaster, but remains his number one target for the 2026 local elections. DP candidate CHONG Won-o is already catching up with the Seoul mayor.
On the diplomatic front, LEE has been very active and well beyond the long planned APEC 2025 summit in Gwangju. As expected, he reconnected with North Korea and China. He's visiting XI Jinping very soon, but KIM Jong-un is not as responsive as planned - probably vaxxed by earlier disillusions from the TRUMP I era, and most certainly not thrilled by the new POTROK's surprising request for a nuclear submarine from Uncle Sam (on the other hand, that OPCON transfer...). Also surprising: LEE cozying up with Japan. XI might ask him to chose sides wisely.
On the domestic front, a few good news: the demographic uptick started 16 months ago has not been disturbed by the domestic turmoil, the presidency returned to Cheong Wa Dae, and exports rebounded (Korean cosmetics rule, semiconductors had a good year...). But the Korean Won nosedived, protectionism returned, the household and national debts kept creeping up, costly gifts to stimulate consumption further damaged the balance, and Korea can't afford a Japan-style headlong flight.
But at least, Korea beat another Netflix record with Kedeheon / 케데헌*.
As much as I enjoyed K-Pop Demon Hunters' catchy OST and many references to the Korean culture, it felt visually closer to a manga or anime than to a manhwa. Even that big cat seemed to come straight from Studio Ghibli. But K-pop itself stole from all over the map, so let's not bicker and enjoy while it lasts.
Because the billions Netflix poured in Korea following Squid Game are coming to an end, and the platform is diversifying its sources across the region - expect a lot of BL from Thailand.
So yes, BTS will drop a new album in March, but other pillars of the creative industry are struggling (see "A Fade Out - Not 'The End'"), and the world will also want new stuff. If it wants to remain a cultural leader**, Korea will need to once more reinvent itself, to move out of its creative comfort zone.
Seoul Village 2026
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* over 325M views for the first 91 days vs over 265M for Squid Game in 2021 (+22%, but the number of Netflix subs grew by 36% in the meantime).
