Korea at the British Museum: A dazzling, soulful trip through the history of nation

After the devastation wrought by the 20th Century – first colonised by Japan in 1910, then split into the North and South after WW2, before 2.5 million died in the Korean War – the fact that South Korea has now emerged as this world-beating cultural force across TV, film, fashion, music, art, seemed near-miraculous. In fact, this exhibition shows that K-Pop is just the latest aspect of a long heritage of creative world-beating. The tragedy of the North, is in not just being cut off from the world, but its own extraordinary cultural history.