Korean Led: Cultural Initiatives

Building on the wave of Korea’s global influence on music, drama, and culture, the One Korea Global Campaign has created a platform for music producers and artists, actors, and directors to raise their voices for Korean reunification, in ways that have enduring impact.

The Unification Song campaigns held since 2015 have produced numerous popular songs. Korea’s prize-winning composers and lyricists, together with famous K-pop bands, have created a new genre of music supporting reunification, including the song featured at the closing meeting at the Inter-Korea summit in 2018. In 2017, Grammy Award–winning producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis produced “Korean Dream” together with American vocalist and songwriter Peobo Bryson and a global team of recording artists from the U.S., South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines.

One K Concerts have been organized to promote the peaceful reunification of Korea, while highlighting the implications of peaceful reunification for global peace. Concerts have been organized in 2015 and 2017 in the Philippines, and in 2019 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Korean Independence Movement in South Korea.

In June 2021, “Number One Korea” was released. It is a song composed by Kim Dong-chan to express the dreams and hopes of overcoming COVID-19 and realizing a unified Korean peninsula. Even though large concerts could not be organized during the pandemic, music television shows hosted song competitions and other creative ways to continue the musical initiatives for Korean reunification. Other cultural initiatives in recent years have also supported Korean reunification, including art exhibitions, a Korean Dream Classic Concert, and street music or drawing festivals to create awareness in popular gathering locations throughout Korea.