[The Editors' Verdict] Two Weapons to Counter the Tariff War

With "K-Content" Like Software in One Hand,
and New Market Development in the Other,
Korea Must Use the Tariff-Free Zone as a Breakthrough

In October 2017, Park Hang-seo fled from Korea to Vietnam. The name that once led the Korean national football team as the head coach alongside Coach Hiddink to the historic 2002 World Cup semifinals was erased from people's memories. He took charge of the Busan Asian Games team in August 2002 but resigned after three months due to poor performance and conflicts with the football association. Since then, the K-League professional teams he managed failed to achieve results. Eventually, he was wounded while managing his hometown team, Changwon City Hall, in the third division league.

There was a 32-year-old young man who reached out to the distressed Park Hang-seo, saying, "It seems difficult in Korea now. Please find me a coaching position even with a Southeast Asian team." This was Lee Dong-jun, CEO of DJ Management and a sports agent. He was the person who connected Park Hang-seo with the Vietnam Football Federation. He is the mastermind behind the 'Vietnam football hero' Park Hang-seo legend.

Mr. Lee opened his eyes to the Asian football market while working in sports marketing at Mirae Asset Management and left his job to become an agent. He set a goal to export players who were about to retire from the K-League at reasonable prices. Having been a promising Taekwondo athlete until middle school, he suffered a knee growth plate injury while playing soccer with friends in his second year of high school. Watching athletes undergoing rehabilitation in hospitals, he thought it would be good to provide them with education and jobs, which led him to the path of sports marketing. Recently, Coach Kim Sang-sik, who took the helm of the Vietnam national football team, is also a product of Mr. Lee’s work. This is the hidden story behind the K-sports craze sweeping Southeast Asia.

Mr. Lee’s expansion of K-content into the sports domain offers many lessons for the Korean economy, which faces a global tariff war crisis. His K-sports export strategy had two main points.

First, sports business is ultimately a content business. In the Vietnam coaching position presentation (PT) that had a 300-to-1 competition ratio, Mr. Lee highlighted Park Hang-seo’s coaching career and emphasized his image as an "underdog expert," which led to his selection. Second, it is about finding profitable markets and applying the principles of asset management to pioneer new markets. The goal was to focus on the undervalued Southeast Asian football market and combine sports with finance to demonstrate an accurate profit model.

Over the past month, we have been watching the new changes with tension and fear as U.S. President Trump declared a tariff war. Trump has now announced indiscriminate "reciprocal tariffs" against multiple countries following specific ones. The barrel of Trump’s tariff war is now approaching Korea’s doorstep. However, rather than fearing the upcoming changes vaguely, we must recognize them as new opportunities and chances for a leap forward and consider how to utilize them.

There is a sector that remains unshaken by the U.S.-originated tariff war: the cultural content industry, including software, entertainment, and sports. The content industry, which does not require physical cargo volume, can become a new breakthrough zone free from tariffs. This is Korea’s most competitive field. Holding K-content in one hand and new market development in the other, Korea must confront the global trade war where "fair play" has disappeared.

Jo Young-chul, Head of Content Editing Team 1