G-Dragon Delivers Historic ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ Performance at 2025 APEC Summit in Gyeongju
Nov 03, 2025
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G-DRAGON, the official ambassador of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), showed off the status of Korean culture by performing at the welcoming dinner of the '2025 APEC Summit' held at the Rahane Select Hotel Grand Banquet Hall in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, on October 31.
At the performance, G-DRAGON showed unrivaled charisma by performing iconic stages such as 'PO ￦' that started with an opening with Korean traditional music, 'HOME SWEET HOME (feat. Taeyang, Daesung)', and 'DRAMA'.
In particular, he showed a sensual fashion sense depicting the Korean national flag with a modern reinterpretation of the traditional 'God' hat, a red bow tie, a blue tuxedo comerband, and a black velvet suit with a white line as the point. His style, which harmonizes Korean sense with global dignity, caught the eyes of world leaders at once and further enhanced the dignity of the stage.
As a result, Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto Van Claveren and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney were seen taking out their phones and admiring his stage. It also showed that culture can be a new bridge for diplomacy, with President Lee Jae-myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping sitting side by side and watching the performance in a friendly manner.
At the same time, he delivered a cheering stick package with the message 'Peace with Create' to the leaders in attendance, conveying the power of art to unite the world across language and borders. 'Peace with Create' is a peace declaration and creative vision thrown around the world by G-DRAGON, embodying the message that 'Peace is the process of creation, not stopping', with music and visuals, and demonstrating the power of healing and solidarity of art. Implementing the Ubermensch philosophy of 'Beyond Myself' in front of world leaders, he proved the new diplomatic potential of K-pop as an artist representing the global era beyond Korea.
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G-DRAGON has established itself as a trend-leading artist by breaking down the boundaries between fashion and art through close relationships with global luxury houses such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Even though he is a male artist, he freely wears Chanel's women's clothes and public clothes, and naturally combines high fashion and streetwear by harmonizing tweed jackets, denim, and leather pants. His unrivaled style is evaluated as a 'genderless sensation' that transcends gender boundaries, attracting a wide range of attention from fans and consumers at home and abroad through various items such as jewelry and nail art. G-DRAGON is one of the representative figures who sublimated Korean aesthetics into a global trend.
Musically, G-DRAGON is establishing itself as an innovator that encompasses generations, genres, and cultures. It has broadened the horizon of popular 題 through representative songs that combine experimental attempts with philosophical messages such as 'One of a Kind', 'Crooked', and 'Untited, 2014'. His third studio album 'Ubermensch', released in eight years, broke his previous record by selling more than 630,000 copies on the first day of release, and proved his global influence by topping iTunes album charts in 28 countries. Following Korea, the world tour, which opened at Tokyo Dome, sold out all seats, and the following tours also continued to sell out, showing off overwhelming ticket power.
Moreover, Hana Financial Group's advertising campaign became on-air at the world's largest immersive LED Dome Sphere in Las Vegas for the first time as a K-pop artist, reaffirming its status as a global icon encompassing culture, technology and art.
Beyond his activities as a singer, G-DRAGON expanded K-POP as a designer, planner, and creator into one K-CULTURE, raising the artistry and creativity of Korean pop culture to the world's diplomatic stage. This APEC stage will be recorded as a decisive scene that shows that music can function as a language of diplomacy beyond simple performances, and a resonant message that G-DRAGON threw to the world as an artist singing peace.
Meanwhile, G-DRAGON continues its final journey of 'G-DRAGON 2025 WORLD TOUR ', which toured 16 cities around the world, and is expected to be an overwhelming finale to prove the peak of K-POP. Coupang Play will participate in the Seoul encore performance as a presenting partner, and ticket reservations will be made through fan club advance reservations on November 10 and general reservations on November 11, and exclusive reservations will be made through the Coupang Play mobile app in Korea and Interpark Global overseas.
On the other hand, G-DRAGON is the first artist to showcase the global media exhibition 'G-DRAGON Media Exhibition: Ubermensch' Tour, which combines music, fashion and media art, and provides a new K-CULTURE experience that visitors can experience directly in an interactive space that combines VR and advanced media technology. This is attracting attention as a symbolic example of expanding and visualizing his music and art world into media languages, and is considered a very unusual and innovative attempt among K-pop artists. So far, it has been held in major cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Osaka, Macau, and Singapore, and continues to be successful.
lyn@sportschosun.com
