Dancers in traditional Korean costumes prepare to perform at Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, May 14. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-sok

While many Koreans believe their country is known around the world for K-pop or K-dramas, what actually comes to mind for people from other countries when they think of Korea is still the North Korean nuclear threat, a survey showed.

According to the survey conducted by the Corea Image Communication Institute, 83.96 percent of foreign respondents who have visited or resided in Korea said the security threat from North Korea is the first thing that comes to mind about Korea.

In contrast, 84.75 percent of Korean respondents said Korea would be known for its culture powerhouse status. Only 30.19 percent of foreign respondents associated Korea with the image of a cultural powerhouse, which ranked third.

This shows a significant gap between how Koreans view themselves and how the international community perceives them.

The gap is also evident in preferences for Korea-related purchases.

While 65.4 percent of Korean respondents believed that K-beauty cosmetics would be the most preferred, 78.7 percent of overseas respondents chose Korean food as their top choice. In particular, non-Koreans expressed interest in a variety of Korean dishes, including snacks and seaweed, in addition to bibimbap and kimchi.

Koreans also named K-dramas and films (88.3 percent) as the cultural content that is most likely to thrive on online platforms. This was also in contrast from the perspective of people from other countries, who ranked K-pop first (89.1 percent).

Regarding areas that call for improvement to expand the global influence of K-culture, Koreans emphasized the need to cultivate creativity (83.4 percent), whereas non-Koreans highlighted the importance of localization and overcoming language barriers (91.9 percent).

However, similar views were shared in some areas among the two groups.

They both selected Korean movies and K-dramas as their most preferred sectors within K-culture and identified technological innovation as the driving force behind Korea's economic growth.

Meanwhile, foreign respondents said the aspects of Korean culture that they found most intriguing were the low likelihood of losing personal items (83 percent), early morning delivery services (50 percent) and the wide range of unmanned stores (39.1 percent).

The survey was carried out through email and web links between July 26 and Aug. 13, involving 435 participants — 223 Koreans and 212 people from other countries who had visited or resided in Korea.