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International Area Studies Review
[ Article ]
International Area Studies Review - Vol. 29, No. 3, pp.331-351
ISSN: 2233-8659 (Print)
Print publication date 30 Sep 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69473/iasr.2026.29.3.331

What Makes “Korea”? A Multidimensional Comparison of South Korea’s National Image in U.S., Chinese, and Japanese News, 2023–2025

Junwon Lee ; Younggil Chae*
Research Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea
Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to: *Email: yg_chae@hufs.ac.kr

Abstract

Foreign news coverage is the primary channel through which most overseas publics encounter a country, yet national image research has typically relied on single favorability or sentiment scores and on single-country, single-event designs. This study constructed a balanced panel of Korea-related coverage from eighteen leading news outlets in the United States, China, and Japan between July 2023 and June 2025, and compared 33,409 articles along three dimensions: coverage domain, image valence, and referent of evaluation. Classification used a large language model pipeline validated through dual human coding, cross-model checks, and design-weighted measurement error correction. First, cross-national differences in domain composition were large overall (V = .252), with similar cross-national differentiation across periods. Second, evaluation diverged within the same domain: only Chinese coverage over-represented security negativity, cultural positivity dominant in the U.S. and Japanese press was suppressed in China, and economic evaluation ran in opposite directions in Japan and China. Third, during the martial law crisis coverage in all three country panels shifted toward politics while evaluative trajectories remained country-specific, distinguishing shared issue attention from evaluative refraction. The study operationalizes the news-mediated national image as a compositional structure and offers a validated template for cross-national large language model classification.

Keywords:

National image, International news, Comparative media systems, Framing, Large language models, Public diplomacy

AI Acknowledgment

The authors used Gemini for article classification, GPT for cross-model validation, and Fable for figure generation. The authors reviewed the outputs and assume full responsibility for the published work.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest in this research.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A5C2A03093660) and supported by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2025.

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News Sources Cited in the Analysis

  • Entries are indexed by the sampled outlet. Chinese and Japanese titles are translated into English; provider credits identify syndicated material.
  • Asahi Shimbun. (2024, May 28). Imagining hope in a world full of violence: Writer Han Kang keeps asking questions [In Japanese]. https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASS5W2HMJS5WUHBI02PM.html
  • Associated Press. (2025, January 23). South Korean investigators call for indictment of detained President Yoon. https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-martial-law-indict-2f485024f9271dc9dfaf71af6bebfad0
  • China News Service. (2025, January 24). Ke Jie withdraws from the LG Cup final; Chinese Weiqi Association rejects the third-game result [In Chinese]. Hunan edition. http://www.hn.chinanews.com.cn/news/zfqy/2025/0124/504792.html
  • CNN. (2024, December 5). “It has to be a deepfake”: South Korean opposition leader on martial law announcement [Video description]. https://us.cnn.com/2024/12/05/world/video/south-korea-opposition-leader-martial-law-exclusive-interview-ldn-digvid
  • Huanqiu. (2023a, July 12). Korean media: South Korea’s 2022 economy falls outside the global top ten; China’s economy is over ten times larger [In Chinese]. https://3w.huanqiu.com/a/c36dc8/4Dg9gNO87Dv
  • Huanqiu. (2023b, July 12). Will U.S. Forces Korea deploy ground-based intermediate-range missiles? Korean netizens ask whether war is an opportunity for Korea [In Chinese]. Global Times report. https://3w.huanqiu.com/a/de583b/4DfpnDZnonZ
  • Huanqiu. (2025, March 11). More news sparks debate following the death of Korean star Kim Sae-ron [In Chinese]. https://ent.huanqiu.com/article/4Lop3e485Xg
  • Los Angeles Times. (2024, June 24). A fire at a lithium battery factory in South Korea kills 22 mostly Chinese migrant workers. Associated Press report. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-06-24/a-fire-at-a-lithium-battery-factory-in-south-korea-kills-22-mostly-chinese-migrant-workers
  • Mainichi Shimbun. (2024, January 12). Korean cosmetics OLIVE YOUNG EXCLUSIVES: Predictions for the next breakout products of 2024 [In Japanese]. ORICON NEWS feature. https://mainichi.jp/articles/20240112/orc/00m/200/069000c, Provider version: https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2310256/full/
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  • People’s Daily Online. (2025, March 17). Korean media: South Korea’s steel industry faces severe challenges; steel giants declare an emergency [In Chinese]. Global Times report. http://korea.people.com.cn/n1/2025/0317/c407882-40440177.html
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