The roots of Korean participation in modern pop culture can be traced back decades. For instance, in 1959, the Kim Sisters, a singing trio, arrived in Las Vegas for the first of many performances. This group, who appeared 22 times on The Ed Sullivan Show, have been called “cultural ambassadors” and “America’s original K-pop stars”.

But hallyu, or the Korean wave, only kicked off following the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. According to a new book, South Korean Popular Culture and North Korea, South Korea’s government “targeted the export of popular media culture as a new economic initiative, one of the major sources of foreign revenue vital for the country’s economic survival and advancement”. In 1998, President Kim Dae-jung, who called himself the “President of Culture”, was inaugurated. His administration started to loosen the ban on cultural products imported from Japan, which had been a reaction to the Japanese colonisation of Korea in the first half of the 20th Century; first manga was allowed back in. The following year, the government introduced the Basic Law for Cultural Industry Promotion and allocated $148.5 million (£113 million) to this.

In music, South Korean pop groups had flourished domestically in the early 1990s. Seo Taiji & Boys debuted on a Korean talent show in 1992, marking the start of modern K-pop, with its integration of English lyrics, hip hop elements, and dance. By the mid-90s, the K-pop star system had become entrenched in South Korea.

Yet the government wanted to spread their culture around the world – and it started in an unlikely place. South Korea’s first major global successes were soapy TV programmes known as K-dramas, initially intended for domestic audiences, but which found popularity in other parts of Asia and further afield. 2002’s Winter Sonata became a global phenomenon partly through the South Korean government’s deals with broadcasters in strategic locations, like Iraq and Egypt, to increase positive feelings towards Korea.