![\"CEO](\"https:\/\/wimg.heraldcorp.com\/news\/cms\/2025\/08\/08\/news-p.v1.20250806.ed7817d5439c4d069111f6581b1cafb7_P1.jpg\")
After decades working at the crossroads of law and entertainment \u2014 from serving as a prosecutor and entertainment lawyer to leading CJ ENM as its chief executive officer \u2014 Kang Ho-sung is taking on a new challenge: Building an agency that redefines what it means to professionally represent South Korean celebrities.<\/p>\n
His latest venture, KHS Agency, goes beyond traditional management, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKorea\u2019s management system still hasn\u2019t properly developed a specialized agency system,\u201d Kang told The Korea Herald. \u201cNow that the Korean market is one of the leading markets in the global entertainment industry, I believe it\u2019s time for the level of care and support for artists and creators \u2014 the core of the entertainment business \u2014 to be significantly upgraded.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most Korean management agencies focus on scouting and training new talent, KHS Agency aims to offer what Kang calls \u201cone-stop strategic care,\u201d a full-service model inspired by the “total talent management” model in the US \u2014 popularized by major agencies such as Creative Artists Agency and William Morris Endeavor.<\/p>\n
A total talent management agency not only focuses on discovering and developing talent and booking opportunities for their clients, but also offers end-to-end strategic support, such as contract negotiation, image branding, legal advice, global expansion and crisis management.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce an artist becomes famous, they\u2019re often left to figure things out on their own,\u201d said Kang, who launched his venture more than three decades after he started his legal professional career as a prosecutor in 1993. KHS Agency, founded in July, consists of lawyers and other legal experts Kang got to know as he built his career as an entertainment lawyer<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fill that gap … so our artists can focus entirely on their creative work,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
![\"CEO](\"https:\/\/wimg.heraldcorp.com\/news\/cms\/2025\/08\/08\/news-p.v1.20250806.4b2d1bf073124756a9a6b296edb3ea6e_P1.jpg\")
For Kang, the shift to this model is a \u201cnecessary evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Korea, a professional agency system still hasn\u2019t properly taken shape,\u201d he said, bringing up Hollywood\u2019s agency landscape, where agent qualifications are strictly regulated and legally protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur industry here in Korea has grown a lot in terms of quantity,\u201d Kang said. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t quite set up the right systems or rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reality of being a celebrity in Korea is often fraught with risk \u2014 especially in an environment where rumors or privacy breaches can go viral in minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Korean market, digital content spreads so quickly that scandals, privacy leaks and fake news can go viral in an instant,\u201d Kang said. \u201cCelebrities often find themselves completely alone in those moments, scrambling to respond without professional support.\u201d<\/p>\n
To counter this, KHS built an in-house risk management team consisting of lawyers and PR experts as well as a risk detection system powered by AI, to monitor online activity<\/span>, flag early warning signs, and respond swiftly in a crisis.<\/p>\n “Crisis response is a highly specialized field, but in Korea, it’s still not treated that way,” he said, adding his expertise as a career attorney dealing with countless similar cases in the field could help him handle the matters of celebrities from a third-person point of view.<\/p>\n “The celebrity isn\u2019t left to handle it alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kang also boasts years of experience in watching domestic agencies negotiate with foreign platforms.<\/p>\n “It’s not just about signing the contract \u2014 it’s about what happens after,” he said. “Up until now, after contracts are signed, there\u2019s often no proper oversight over how the project is managed, how profits are distributed, or how it wraps up. It tends to follow the foreign partner\u2019s terms.\u201d<\/p>\n That, he says, is where many Korean agencies fall short. They “step away too early,” he said, adding it leaves artists vulnerable to being sidelined in post-deal processes.<\/p>\n Kang says his agency will make sure they\u2019re not treated as just \u201cforeign talent\u201d in unfamiliar territory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll stay involved as a strategic overseer, someone who understands both sides of the industry and ensures fair, long-term outcomes,\u201d Kang said.<\/p>\n lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.koreaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CEO and lawyer Kang Ho-sung of KHS Agency speaks during an interview with The Korea Herald at the offices of KHS Agency in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, Monday. (Lee Jung-joo\/The Korea Herald) After decades working at the crossroads of law and entertainment \u2014 from serving as a prosecutor and entertainment lawyer to leading CJ ENM as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[341368,23842,341365,341364,26268,341366,341367,341363,341370,341371,341369],"class_list":["post-1950944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-asia-news","tag-k-pop","tag-koreaherald","tag-korean-news","tag-kpop","tag-south-korea-news","tag-south-korea-news-in-english","tag-the-korea-herald","tag-341370","tag-341371","tag-341369"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"CEO](\"https:\/\/wimg.heraldcorp.com\/news\/cms\/2025\/08\/08\/news-p.v1.20250806.e21e5af7c4a941518d4acc4738022bdc_P1.jpg\")