Korea's image, brand in trouble?

I really don't like to editorialize much but here is a link to an interview with a foreign consultant in the Korea times discussing how Korea's brand image was in trouble.

``Sometimes it can be good to have discussion and lively debate, but if it's not in the right context, people may say, 'oh my god what's happening there,''' he said.

Korea used to be known as a country of the "miracle" due to its rapid transformation from a war-ravaged agricultural economy into a manufacturing powerhouse, but it has lost its glorious image and is now turning into a republic of "protest."

Essentially, it is good example of the narrow minded frame of much of the mainstream press, in Korea and abroad (our National Post says much the same thing) as well as some segments of the business community for profit which would rather see government run as a business and not as politics in which collective conflicts are resolved . Anyways, last time I checked Korea was a country, an ensemble of social and cultural relations, not a product. Viewing a country as a brand is not only idiotic, it is dangerous, there is not much democratic in trying to maintain a country's 'product image' instead of providing public goods and social justice.