Over the past decade or so, a new gateway has emerged through which the world encounters Korea: the music and messages of BTS. Young people around the world have listened to Korean-language songs, looked up the meanings of the lyrics, and shared the experience of people of different nationalities and races connecting around a single body of music. This is why BTS's global influence is difficult to explain solely through chart performance or concert scale. Through their music, they have repeatedly spoken about how to love yourself, how to raise your own voice, how to acknowledge others' differences, and how to connect with one another. At the center of this lies a broad 'language of peace.' The peace referred to here is not a grand political concept. It is closer to a way of relating in which people respect one another, do not exclude each other because of differences, and acknowledge each person's life and voice.

Peace Begins in the Way We Relate Following BTS's messages, the meaning of the word peace expands considerably. Reducing violence, acknowledging each other's differences, not losing one's own voice, respecting another person's existence, and believing in the possibility of connection between different people are all included within it. A representative example is the 'LOVE MYSELF' campaign launched by BTS and UNICEF in 2017. The campaign began with the goal of reducing violence and abuse against children and adolescents, but its message went beyond simple anti-violence. It extended from respecting and loving oneself to acknowledging the dignity and worth of others. It is a structure that moves from self-respect to respect for others, from the individual to the community. If peace is understood as a way of relating between people, this message carries important meaning, because acknowledging each other's existence itself—rather than trying to change or dominate one another—can be the starting point of peace.

Peace That Begins from 'Difference' When BTS visited the White House in 2022, a similar message emerged. Suga said that being different from others is not wrong, and that equality begins with acknowledging difference. V also said that everyone has their own history, and that we must recognize and respect each other as precious beings. Though brief, these remarks encapsulate the attitude BTS has shown for a long time. Peace is not a state in which everyone becomes the same, but a state in which people can coexist despite their differences. Even when languages, cultures, environments, and ways of thinking differ, not denying the other person's existence—and instead building relationships while acknowledging differences—is closer to a realistic form of peace. The way BTS formed relationships with their global fandom resembles this as well. Countless fans do not share the same language or cultural background. Yet they have built relationships around a single body of music, translating each other's languages and sharing emotions. They did not erase differences; rather, they demonstrated that connection is possible even in a state of difference.

Finding One's Own Name and Voice RM's 2018 speech at the United Nations Headquarters reveals this philosophy more clearly. While speaking about his own shortcomings and fears, he asked each person to begin by loving themselves, and to find their own name and voice and tell their own story. What is important is that the subject of the message was always the individual. Regardless of where someone was born or what environment they grew up in, each person has their own life and story. This is also a key characteristic of the worldview BTS built through their music: a gaze that tries to see people as individual beings rather than judging them by large categories or images. Someone may speak a different language, live within a different culture, and hold entirely different values. But that person, too, is one human being with their own story of anxiety, hope, failure, and growth. As this gaze expands, the distance between people can narrow.

The Expansive Power of Peace Created by Culture An interesting aspect of BTS's global success is that they did not become global stars by erasing their Korean elements. They went out into the world with a language and experiences rooted in Korea. Concrete experiences—Seoul and Ilsan, schools and practice rooms, youthful anxiety and competition, self-loathing and growth—crossed borders and cultural differences and connected with the experiences of others. It was not that cultural differences disappeared, but that the possibility of empathy despite differences was confirmed. This is the expansive power of peace that culture possesses. Culture does not command people to change directly. Instead, it lets people briefly experience someone else's life. Listening to music, reading lyrics, and encountering stories, someone who once felt distant comes closer as a more concrete person. The moment we learn the music someone loves, their worries, sorrows, and dreams—after seeing them merely as a member of a particular country or race—they move from a category to a person. Peace may well begin from such small movements.

The 'Community of Translation' Created by BTS and ARMY The relationships that BTS and ARMY have built around the world can also be viewed from this perspective. People from different countries listened to the same songs and translated the lyrics. One person conveyed the meaning they understood to another, explaining expressions from different cultures and learning each other's languages. Translation is not merely the work of converting words into another language. It is a process of trying to understand the language and cultural context the other person uses. In that sense, the translation culture of the BTS fandom can be read as a small practice of peace. Rather than immediately rejecting what one does not understand, one attempts to understand it. Rather than giving up on relationships because of language barriers, one searches for ways to overcome them. A significant portion of the connections created by BTS's global fandom was made possible through this very translation and sharing.

The Expansiveness of LOVE MYSELF Among the messages BTS has repeated, the most important may be 'LOVE MYSELF.' On the surface it appears to be a personal message about loving oneself, but following the actual campaign and statements, it does not end in self-love. It expands toward the idea that a person who respects themselves can also acknowledge the dignity of others. This structure resembles the principle of peace, because it begins with acknowledging one's own existence and moves toward acknowledging the existence of others. If peace is not achieved through grand declarations alone, this personal attitude also matters. A person who constantly loathes themselves may find it difficult to respect others, and someone who feels their own voice is suppressed may lose the capacity to listen to others' voices. This is why BTS's messages connect the individual's inner world with social relationships. It is a structure in which peace that begins in one's relationship with oneself expands into relationships with others.

What BTS Showed May Be a 'Technology of Peace' Placing BTS's various activities and remarks together as one flow reveals several commonalities. In LOVE MYSELF they spoke of self-respect; at the United Nations they urged people not to lose their own voice; at the White House they said that difference is not wrong. Each statement came from a different place and context, but the direction is similar: they do not erase people. They refuse to reduce a person to a single group or image, and instead see each person as a being with their own name and life. Perhaps this is the most realistic 'technology of peace' BTS has shown the world. Before declaring peace as a grand ideal, one respects one's own existence, acknowledges others' differences, and builds relationships in which one can listen to the other's story. It is a way of lowering the unit of peace from a vast community down to a single person. And BTS and ARMY have actually shown that the small relationships created in this way can expand to a global scale.

What Korean Culture Gone Global Gives Back to Us The emergence of BTS is one of the representative events of Korean culture's global expansion. But now the opposite question is also possible: if Korean culture that has gone out into the world brings back the ways of connection it created globally into our own society, what would change? Countless people around the world translated Korean lyrics to understand their meaning, and fans from different cultural backgrounds empathized while listening to the same music. In that process, their individual identities did not disappear. Relationships were formed while differences remained. This experience may be an important asset that Korean culture gained in the process of globalization. Peace is probably not a state in which everyone thinks the same. It is closer to a state in which people can see each other as human beings even when their thoughts, cultures, and life experiences differ. The language BTS has long spread across the world points to this very place. The language of peace expands little by little—from loving myself to respecting others, from respecting others to connecting with different cultures, and from understanding different cultures to seeing a stranger as one human being. This is not to say that BTS can resolve the world's conflicts. Nor is there any reason to demand such a role of them. However, the fact that the language and actions they have repeated over time leave us with a question is meaningful. If people around the world could understand each other's existence through Korean-language songs, how much do we, in our daily lives, see those who are different from us as individual human beings? The place where peace is achieved may not be a grand stage but, ultimately, the space between one person and another. It means acknowledging differences without giving up on the other's dignity, trying to hear the voices of people with different stories, and never forgetting that a person different from me is also a being who loves, worries, and dreams just as I do. The most important asset that Korean culture opened to the world can return to us may well be this language of peace and its potential for expansion. What BTS has shown the world over the years is the possibility that peace does not begin only with grand declarations, but can begin with the attitude of seeing one person, to the very end, as one person.

[This content is an article highlighting stars who have been nominated for the Netizen Awards. The Netizen Awards is an online fan voting platform that does not sell voting rights and provides equal voting opportunities to all users. Rankings are determined not by capital but by fans' voluntary and continuous participation, and the cumulative 77 million votes are a record of pure fan devotion built up by each individual fan's choices. This article was partially assisted by AI. The main text is a cultural critique interpreting the meaning of peace and culture based on BTS's public statements and activities, and does not represent the official political or social positions of BTS or their agency.]