South Korea is a country that has experienced rapid social changes, beginning with economic development. [...] Economic transformation invariably caused widespread social and political changes as well. Korean society has been profoundly reshaped in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with many of these changes still ongoing. In the political sphere, civic groups are exerting increasing influences on the political processes of the nation s politics. Socially, one of the most important changes is the rapid aging of the population, which has been brought on by the increase in life expectancy and the record-low fertility rate. Another significant social change has been the making of multicultural Korea, as the number of foreigners residing in Korea has reached the 1.7 million mark or 3.4 percent of the total population in 2015. The phenomenon of Hallyu or the Korean Wave, which refers to the rise in the popularity of Korean popular culture in many parts of the world, has also been a significant change for the country.