Pop music is manufactured all over the world, but in South Korea, things are a bit extreme. Kids as young as 10 are spotted, recruited and groomed to become future pop stars.

In the late 90s, K-Pop started getting international fame when artists like Clone made it to China and other Asian countries. Then in 2002, during the soccer World Cup, BoA topped the charts in Japan.

The perfect storm happened in 2012, when a Korean record by Psy, became an international Youtube phenomenon with over 1 billion views at that time(now 3.5 billion views).

K-Pop popularity and hysteria among the young have led to a rise of other popular industries like the beauty industry while also boosting the attraction towards cosmetic and plastic surgery for young people influenced by the K-Pop stars. 

.. or the Korean culture wave has been extremely influential, successful and therefore ripe for control by the ‘Establishment’, which is the South Korean business and political leaders. The government, sensing the huge opportunity to expand the South Korean influence and soft power status abroad,...