K-pop’s evolution from Busan 2005 to Gyeongju 2025: From sidelines to center stage

When BoA performed her hit “No. 1” at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ dinner in Busan in 2005, she represented theyouthful energy of Korean pop culture before an audience of global power brokers, including then–US President George W. Bush,Japan’s Junichiro Koizumi, China’s Hu Jintao and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Sharing the stage with world-renowned soprano Sumi Jo,BoA embodied Korea’s ambitions to project its modern culture abroad. It was an early glimpse of what would become k