President Lee Jae-myung reiterated his directive to push for the construction of a concert venue with more than 50,000 seats, saying "a national symbol K-pop arena is needed." The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism responded that it would select a site immediately after the June 3 local elections.
President Lee made the request to the culture ministry while receiving reports on each ministry's "first-anniversary government achievements" at a Cabinet meeting and emergency economic review meeting held at the Blue House on Wednesday, asking, "How is the K-pop arena project progressing? Shouldn't a large-scale venue be newly built?"
He also asked, "Don't we need several large-scale venues with around 50,000 seats?" Regarding the 20,000- to 30,000-seat venues currently under construction, he stressed, "Those are a bit small. We need a national symbol arena."
In response, Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said, "We plan to consult with local governments and select sites for large-scale venues once new local administrations are formed after the local elections." He reported that securing venues is being pursued in phases, with existing sports facilities being reinforced for immediate use while 20,000- to 30,000-seat venues are under construction.
In particular, he explained that the 25,000-seat "Seoul Arena," currently under construction in Changdong, Dobong-gu, Seoul, is scheduled for completion around next summer, and that the "Phenomenon Grand Festival," bringing together the four major K-pop agencies, is planned to be held there at the end of next year. Minister Choi reported, "Japan currently has four such venues (with 50,000-seat capacity), and one more is under construction. While Korea doesn't need that many, we need to quickly build venues of that scale."
President Lee has shown an exceptional interest in large-scale K-pop arenas. At a culture ministry briefing in December last year, he asked detailed questions about the "K-pop arena expansion plan" reported at the time and instructed for its early implementation.
According to the plan disclosed by the culture ministry, a 50,000-seat large-scale performance arena will be newly built in the Seoul metropolitan area, with site selection completed by the first half of next year, followed by design and licensing procedures, with the goal of breaking ground in 2031 and completing construction in 2034. The current limitation of the discussion is that the physical structure is unlikely to be seen within President Lee's term.
Meanwhile, Minister Choi explained the culture ministry's first-year achievements under the Lee Jae-myung administration during the briefing, focusing on "K-tourism," "K-content," and "cultural enjoyment in daily life." On K-tourism, he reported that "the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea last year reached 18.94 million, a record high, and is expected to increase by 22% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year."
In the K-content sector, he explained that "content exports last year reached $14.9 billion, up 5.9% year-on-year, and the domestic film industry saw box office revenue rise 58.7% and audience numbers increase 53.2% in the first quarter of this year." On cultural enjoyment, he said, "Starting in April this year, 'Culture Day' was expanded to every Wednesday as 'Culture Wednesday,' and annual visitors to the National Museum of Korea exceeded 6.5 million last year, putting it on par with the world's top three museums."
