Tag: Made in Korea Season 2

Made in Korea Season 2 characters in a dark political thriller scene with the title Ending Explained and Drama Analysis.

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Why Baek Kitae’s final gunshot matters, what “The world has changed” really means, and the Korean history behind Hwang Daesik’s rise. Full spoilers.

To understand the ending of Made in Korea Season 2, you have to look beyond the final confrontation between Baek Kitae and Jang Geonyoung. Behind their fight, the era of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency is collapsing, while the Joint Investigation Headquarters and the military are becoming the new centers of power. Hwang Daesik stands right in the middle of that shift.

This article contains full spoilers for Made in Korea Season 2.

Director Woo Min-ho has now confirmed that Baek Kitae is alive and will return in Season 3. That settles the question of his survival, while the ending still leaves much to explain. Why did Kihyun point a gun at his own brother, what does Geonyoung mean when he says, “The world has changed,” and why does Kitae sit in the president’s chair and say “Imja” in the final scene?

Some of those details are immediately recognizable to Korean viewers but far less obvious if you did not grow up with this period of Korean history. So before getting into the ending itself, a little political background helps.

The Political Structure Behind Made in Korea

Who Was Park Chung Hee, the President Killed in Episode 1?

Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, and Syngman Rhee became the first president of the Republic of Korea in 1948. After years of increasingly authoritarian rule and the fraudulent March 15 election of 1960, nationwide protests led to the April Revolution. Rhee resigned on April 26.

A new democratic government followed, but it did not last long. On May 16, 1961, soldiers led by Major General Park Chung Hee carried out a military coup and seized key institutions in Seoul. Park remained at the center of South Korean politics until 1979. His 18-year dominance ended suddenly on October 26, 1979, when KCIA Director Kim Jae-gyu shot and killed Park and presidential security chief Cha Ji-chul.

Made in Korea Season 2 begins right at that moment.

What Is the Difference Between the KCIA and the Joint Investigation Headquarters?

The organization Kitae belongs to is the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, or KCIA. In Korean, people often shortened its name to Jungjeong. Created in 1961, it had enormous power. It collected intelligence at home and abroad, investigated national security cases, and could coordinate or supervise intelligence activities across other government bodies, including the military.

Then the director of the KCIA himself killed the president.

The day after the assassination, the Joint Investigation Headquarters was established under the martial-law command to investigate the case. Its chief was Chun Doo-hwan, then commander of the Defense Security Command. The investigation gave his organization extraordinary influence at precisely the moment when the KCIA had been thrown into crisis.

That makes the power shift in Season 2 fairly simple to understand: Kitae’s KCIA represents the old power that is fading away, while the Joint Investigation Headquarters that Geonyoung joins represents the power now rising in its place.

In real history, the KCIA was badly weakened after its own director assassinated the president. Kitae’s ability to keep maneuvering at the center of events is the drama’s invention.

Did Korea’s Political Leadership Really Sell Meth to Japan?

There is a real historical background behind the drug trade in the series. Methamphetamine produced in Korea—commonly called hiroppong in Korean—was smuggled into Japan, and there were also cases in which officials responsible for drug enforcement were bribed by manufacturers.

But there is no documented evidence that South Korea’s top political leadership itself operated a state-backed meth business in Japan to finance political activities.

The more interesting connection is Kitae’s idea of “patriotism.” One notorious Korean meth producer, Lee Hwang-sun, was reported to have talked about selling meth to Japan as though it were an export business and even a patriotic act. So the huge state-linked drug operation in Made in Korea is fictional, but the bizarre logic that “selling drugs to Japan is patriotic” did not come entirely from nowhere.

Is Hwang Daesik a Real Person?

Hwang Daesik is fictional. But his position is very difficult to separate from the real Chun Doo-hwan.

Hwang is commander of the Defense Security Command. After the president’s assassination, he takes control of the Joint Investigation Headquarters and begins putting pressure on the KCIA. Chun Doo-hwan held those same two key positions in 1979.

That does not mean Chun already controlled the entire military immediately after October 26. Army Chief of Staff Chung Seung-hwa was also the martial-law commander and remained above him in the formal military chain of command. On December 12, 1979, forces led by Chun detained Chung and other senior commanders and began taking control of the military.

So Hwang at the end of Season 2 is already extremely powerful, but he has not yet completed his takeover.

Kitae survives, but his place in the old political order has collapsed. Hwang’s power is still growing, and the history he evokes is only beginning. That is why knowing Kitae is alive does not make the ending any less troubling.

I covered what happened next in more detail here:

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Daesik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Season 1 Was One Giant Setup for Season 2

In Season 1, Geonyoung tries to bring down both Kitae and Cheon Seokjung, and he fails. Kitae understands the mechanics of power far better than Geonyoung does. He even turns Pyo Haksoo, whom Geonyoung had recruited, back against him. It is a fight between a man who believes in the law and a man who understands the people who control it.

Season 2 reverses that structure. Kitae sets traps again, but Geonyoung now knows how he thinks. He gets to the bomb at Cheonungak first, anticipates the second assassination attempt, and finally uses the person Kitae cares about most—his younger brother Kihyun.

In Season 1, Kitae defeats Geonyoung using Kitae’s methods. In Season 2, Geonyoung learns those methods and uses them to defeat Kitae.

In that sense, Geonyoung may have become the Kitae of the new era.

Why Does Kihyun Shoot Kitae?

Kihyun has spent most of his life owing his brother a debt he can never repay. When he killed another student in high school, Kitae covered up the incident. His brother saved his future that day, but from then on, Kihyun could never fully escape him.

By the finale, the situation has changed. Hwang orders Kihyun to kill his brother, and letting Kitae escape could put not only Kihyun but also Soyoung and Minju in danger. He is forced to choose between his brother and the family that remains.

He still understands his brother. But he has decided this is the only way he and the rest of his family can survive. That is why Kihyun is crying when he raises the gun, and it is also the clearest possible sign that he has crossed from Kitae’s side to Hwang Daesik’s.

Did Baek Kitae Really Die?

When I first watched the finale, I interpreted the scene as Kitae’s death. Kihyun points a gun at his brother and a shot is heard, but the drama never shows Kitae being hit or shows his body afterward. Director Woo Min-ho has since settled the question in a post-finale interview: Kitae is definitely alive.

Woo said Kitae was written to die in the original script, but he changed the ending during production. His explanation is that Kitae disappears from that era, with the gunshot marking the end of the 1970s. That confirms my reading of the political shift: the KCIA’s power collapses, while the military force represented by Hwang Daesik begins to rise.

The man survives. His era does not.

Kitae’s survival does not undo his defeat. His sister has become addicted to the drugs their family helped sell, and the younger brother he spent his life protecting now points a gun at him. He survives, but his beliefs about family and patriotism collapse along with the political world that gave him power.

This is no longer an open ending that merely leaves his survival possible. Woo said Season 3 was already in preparation while Season 2 was being made, and that Kitae will return. The question now is what kind of Korea he will return to, and what kind of man he will be when he does.

Who Is the Villain?

Almost every major character in this drama becomes a villain in one way or another. Kitae obviously does. Kihyun is not free of responsibility either. He finally points a gun at his brother in the name of protecting his family, but that decision also means choosing the side of Hwang Daesik, the most dangerous figure of the next era.

Geonyoung is no longer the man we met in Season 1. He accepts torture and uses political power when it serves his purpose. By the end, even his own words about giving his patriotism to power suggest that the justice he has pursued is no longer as clean as he once believed it was.

Oh Yejin comes closest to remaining on the right side. She criticizes the torture and repeatedly questions what Geonyoung is becoming. But she remains inside a system where illegal investigations and torture are taking place, and ultimately she does not stop them.

The most dangerous character, though, is Hwang Daesik. Kitae commits terrible acts while calling them patriotism. Hwang is different. He talks about fighting corruption, justice, service to the country, and rewarding men who have served the nation, while quietly deciding for himself who will be punished and who will survive.

At the end of Season 2, Hwang walks away surrounded by men in military uniforms, with Pyo Haksoo following behind them. It is a small scene, but it tells you exactly where the next source of power—and the next source of evil—is going to be.

As a Korean, I found that image chilling.

“The World Has Changed” — What the Drama Is Really Saying

When Geonyoung tells Kitae “The world has changed,” the line carries more weight than a simple declaration of victory.

Kitae belongs to an era in which he can convince himself that economic development, national security, and patriotism justify almost anything. He sells drugs, kills people, and manipulates state power while continuing to believe that he is serving his country. Even at the end, he still sees himself as a patriot.

But the end of Kitae’s era does not mean a better era is about to begin. The real government associated with the historical figure Hwang evokes later adopted “Realizing a Just Society” as one of its official national policy goals. The irony is hard to miss: the language of justice existed alongside authoritarian rule and the suppression of pro-democracy movements.

That is why I read Made in Korea Season 2 this way: an era in which a villain justifies everything in the name of development and patriotism ends, and an even more dangerous villain begins taking power in the name of justice.

Woo Min-ho’s description of the final shot as the sound that closes the 1970s fits that reading. After December 12, the new military leadership seized control of the armed forces, and military rule continued through Chun Doo-hwan and then Roh Tae-woo. Kim Young-sam’s government took office in 1993.

More than thirteen years separate Kitae’s 1979 ending from that point.

Why Doesn’t Kitae Kill Geonyoung?

Kitae does not think of himself as evil. He genuinely believes that he is a patriot, and he holds on to that belief almost to the very end. By the time he has Geonyoung at gunpoint, however, killing him would no longer change anything.

Cheon Seokjung is gone. Kitae has lost his organization. Soyoung has fallen apart, and Kihyun has left him. Killing one more man cannot bring his world back.

Kitae’s decision to spare Geonyoung reads less like mercy and more like Kitae realizing that killing one more man would change nothing.

There is also a reason Geonyoung needs to survive within the structure of the drama. Kitae disappears from the political order he once dominated, but power does not. Geonyoung remains to see Hwang Daesik—the man whose power he used to destroy Kitae—become the center of the next order.

With Kitae returning in Season 3, I can no longer read this scene as the final conclusion of their relationship. In Season 1, Kitae defeated Geonyoung; in Season 2, Geonyoung learned his methods and used them to bring him down. Both men survive, leaving open how their conflict might continue.

Who Is Madam Shin?

Even the official character introduction describes Madam Shin only as a “mysterious figure.” She moves freely around the president, speaks as though she knows what lies ahead, and is treated almost like a spiritual adviser. It is natural to read her as some kind of shamanic figure.

But as a Korean, I found her strangely unfamiliar. She does not look or behave like the Korean shamans most of us would immediately recognize. She speaks Japanese, wears clothing with a distinctly Japanese feel, and even the ritual scenes do not look much like traditional Korean shamanic rites.

That could simply be a production-design choice. To me, though, it looks as if the drama is visually drawing on remnants of the Japanese colonial period that were still present in Korean society at the time.

Park Chung Hee himself was fluent in Japanese and received military education in institutions tied to imperial Japan and Manchukuo. He attended the Manchukuo military academy and later trained at the Japanese Military Academy; records also show that he remained personally connected to former Japanese instructors after becoming Korea’s leader. There are also accounts of him singing Japanese military songs at drinking gatherings.

Madam Shin doesn’t seem meant to reproduce any one real historical person. She works more as a device showing that even people at the very top of political power grow anxious when confronted with their own future.

The president seeks her out. Jang Mujin, the army chief of staff, meets her. Kitae listens to her.

These men may believe they control the country, but they still cannot see what is coming for themselves.

What Does Kitae’s Final Word “Imja” Mean?

In the final scene of Season 2, Kitae sits down in the president’s chair, puts a cigarette in his mouth, and says one word.

“Imja.”

Imja is an old-fashioned way of addressing someone, often with a degree of familiarity or from a socially senior position. It is rarely heard in ordinary Korean conversation today.

It is also a form of address Park Chung Hee was known to use with officials around him.

That makes Kitae’s choice of word important. Sitting in the president’s chair and saying imja, he is imitating Park Chung Hee.

Kitae spends the entire story insisting that he acts for the country rather than for money or power. The final scene leaves us with a different question.

Did Baek Kitae really want to serve the president for the sake of his country? Or did he ultimately want to sit in that chair himself?

Basic Info

Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Jang Hye-jin, Heo Jung-do
Episodes: 6
Release: September 9–23, 2026, with two episodes weekly, on Disney+ and Hulu

More on Made in Korea

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Three men in a dark political thriller scene for Made in Korea Season 2 full story.
Illustration: Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End / KwaveInsider

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2: What Really Happened on October 26

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3–4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Did Baek Ki-tae Die? The Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Daesik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

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Three men in a dark political thriller scene for Made in Korea Season 2 full story.

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Nine years after Season 1, Baek Kitae and Jang Geonyoung collide again—but neither man becomes the true winner. Here is the full story of Made in Korea Season 2, from the fall of the old regime to Kitae’s final confrontation. Full spoilers.

If Season 1 was a battle between Baek Kitae and Jang Geonyoung, Season 2 is different. The two men collide again, but in the end, neither of them is the true winner. In 1979, as the president dies and the old power structure begins to collapse, Kitae and Geonyoung charge toward each other again, while behind their fight an entirely new force named Hwang Daesik quietly begins to grow.

From here on, there are full spoilers for Season 2.

By the end of the season, Kihyun points a gun at his brother and a shot rings out, while Geonyoung comes close to completing the revenge he has wanted for years. Kitae survives, but Korea does not move into a better era at that moment. It moves into Hwang Daesik’s era. Season 2 is therefore the story of Kitae’s downfall and the end of the political world that gave him power, as a more dangerous one begins.

Nine Years Later, Baek Kitae Has Become One of the KCIA’s Most Powerful Men

Nine years have passed. Baek Kitae has risen to become acting director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, powerful enough to meet the president alone. The president tells him that KCIA Director Cho’s eyes have changed lately and orders Kitae to keep a close watch on him.

The country is tense. Large-scale protests are breaking out in Busan and Masan, while conflict is growing even inside the president’s inner circle over how to respond. Director Cho argues that the government should not provoke the public any further, while Presidential Security Chief Gwak insists that even tanks should be deployed.

Kitae’s business has also grown far beyond what it was nine years earlier. His younger sister Soyoung (So-young) oversees large-scale drug production, while in Japan he continues working with Ikeda Yuji. But Kitae still refuses to sell the drugs inside Korea. He says he will not destroy his own country with narcotics, and he still calls that patriotism.

In Japan, Yuji is fighting for control of her organization. Kitae uses his power in Korea to eliminate her rival and eventually helps her reach the top. Money, drugs, intelligence agencies, and Japanese organized crime have all become part of one enormous operation, and Kitae stands at the center of it as both a senior state official and a criminal businessman.

October 26, 1979 — The President Is Killed

When Kitae travels to Busan, he sees soldiers beating civilians and torture taking place inside the KCIA branch office. His former colleague Pyo Haksoo (Pyo Hak-soo) is now the head of the Busan branch.

Then comes October 26. At the Gungjeong-dong safe house, the president drinks with Cheon Seokjung (Cheon Seok-jung), Presidential Security Chief Gwak, and KCIA Director Cho. Another argument breaks out over how to deal with the protests, and Cho tells the president that the country cannot continue to be run this way. Sensing that something is wrong, Cheon calls Kitae.

By the time Kitae reaches the safe house, gunshots ring out. The president and Gwak are dead. Cho tries to leave with the Army Chief of Staff, but Kitae blocks them, and when Cho tries to head toward KCIA headquarters, Kitae instead forces the group toward Army Headquarters. Cho is eventually arrested.

In actual history, KCIA Director Kim Jae-gyu assassinated President Park Chung Hee and Presidential Security Chief Cha Ji-chul on October 26, 1979. Army Chief of Staff Chung Seung-hwa had been waiting in a separate building at the safe house, and Kim later moved with him before the group ended up at Army Headquarters. The drama twists that historical moment by inserting the fictional Baek Kitae into it.

The moment the president is gone, everyone begins looking toward the next center of power. The Army Chief of Staff becomes Martial Law Commander and appoints Kitae as acting KCIA director in order to keep Security Command chief Hwang Daesik in check. Hwang does not stand still, however. He becomes head of the Joint Investigation Headquarters, takes control of the presidential assassination investigation, and begins putting pressure on the KCIA, setting up a confrontation between the old center of power and a military intelligence organization that is suddenly growing stronger.

Kitae tells Cheon Seokjung, “Let’s cross the Han River.” During the May 16, 1961 military coup, coup forces broke through the Han River defense line, entered Seoul, and seized key institutions including Army Headquarters and the broadcasting station. In that context, Kitae’s line sounds almost like a proposal for another coup.

To prepare for it, Kitae arranges for 70 billion won held in Japan to be brought back to Korea. But when the vehicles carrying the money enter a tunnel, soldiers block the road. A car window rolls down, and after seven years, Jang Geonyoung appears again.

Jang Geonyoung Spent Seven Years Preparing to Catch Baek Kitae

Geonyoung lost everything at the end of Season 1. He spent two years in prison and worked construction jobs after his release, but he never gave up. For the next seven years, he searched through discarded documents and even garbage to trace the corruption of Cheon Seokjung and Baek Kitae, eventually uncovering Cheon’s 70 billion won slush fund.

Geonyoung hands the evidence to Colonel Ahn Jaeho (Ahn Jae-ho), his high school junior who is now an officer in the Security Command. He has one condition: if they succeed in bringing down Cheon and Kitae, Geonyoung wants a pardon and the restoration of his rights. That is how he returns as a special adviser to the Joint Investigation Headquarters.

In the tunnel, Geonyoung seizes the 70 billion won brought in from Japan and also arrests Ikeda Yuji. Hwang Daesik is pleased, but he refuses to allow an immediate raid on Kitae’s drug operation. If it becomes public that the president and the KCIA were involved in the narcotics business, Hwang argues, the scandal could shake the state itself.

What Hwang wants is not the whole truth. He wants only the truth that serves power. So instead of using the drug business to bring down Cheon and Kitae, he decides to pursue them through political funds. For that, he needs the ledger proving that the 70 billion won belonged to Cheon Seokjung.

Kitae and Geonyoung Fight Again Over One Ledger

Ikeda Yuji is interrogated by the Joint Investigation Headquarters. Oh Yejin (Oh Ye-jin), who once investigated the drug trade with Geonyoung in Busan, has become a prosecutor and has been dispatched from the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office. She objects to the torture of Yuji, but Geonyoung is no longer the same man he was before, and he ultimately uses torture to force out the location of the ledger.

Yejin asks him, “Have you changed?” In Season 1, Geonyoung believed in the law. Now he believes the law alone cannot bring down Kitae, and he is slowly beginning to resemble the very man he hates.

The ledger is in the hands of a Japanese gangster named Takahashi. Kitae knows that everything will collapse if it reaches the Joint Investigation Headquarters, so he finds Takahashi first, but Geonyoung and his forces soon storm the hotel. Takahashi is killed in the gunfight, and the ledger ends up in Geonyoung’s hands.

With both the 70 billion won and the ledger secured, the Joint Investigation Headquarters exposes Cheon Seokjung’s slush fund. Cheon, who once dreamed of becoming president, becomes a criminal overnight and is arrested. The person watching his downfall from closest range is none other than Kitae’s younger brother, Baek Kihyun.

Kihyun Has Never Been Able to Escape His Brother

Kihyun carries an old secret. When he was a high school student, he killed another student during a fight using Kitae’s gun, and Kitae, then a Special Forces captain, arrived and covered up the entire incident. Kihyun’s life was saved by his brother that day, but from that same moment, he became unable to escape him.

In Season 2, Kihyun is a lieutenant colonel in the Security Command. On the surface he works under Hwang Daesik, but he continues leaking information from the Joint Investigation Headquarters to Kitae, and Geonyoung knows it. This relationship between the two brothers continues all the way to the finale.

Meanwhile, Ikeda Yuji is released but kept under guard at a hotel. When Kitae visits her, she asks him to leave for Japan with her and says, “Come back alive. Then let’s really try loving each other.” Kitae promises, but he does not leave Korea.

Cheon Seokjung orders Kitae to kill Hwang Daesik, and Kitae reaches the same conclusion on his own. Hwang has to be removed.

The Bomb at Cheonungak

Hwang Daesik, his inner circle, and Geonyoung gather at Cheonungak. Kitae plants a bomb under their table and triggers it from a distance, but someone unexpected arrives. It is Kihyun.

When his younger brother sits at the table above the bomb, Kitae has no choice but to enter Cheonungak himself. He tries to take Kihyun outside, but Hwang stops him. Even as Kitae and Geonyoung exchange barbed remarks, the countdown continues.

Kitae finally reaches under the table himself. With less than ten seconds remaining, he must choose between a red wire and a blue wire. He cuts the red one, and the bomb does not explode.

Kitae could have killed Hwang, but because of his brother, he ends up stopping his own assassination plan with his own hands. Afterward, Kihyun tells him, “The world has changed.” Cheon Seokjung will not make it out alive either, he says, so Kitae should leave for Japan while he still can. In effect, the brothers split apart at this moment.

Hwang Daesik Makes Kihyun His Own Man

Kitae’s family is already collapsing. He visits Soyoung in the hospital after her drug use puts her there, but instead of promising to stop, she asks him to get her more drugs and breaks down, demanding to know why he killed Kang Daeil (Kang Dae-il). Then she tells him never to come back. The business Kitae believed he had built for his family is now destroying that family.

Hwang Daesik, meanwhile, approaches Kihyun. He says he takes care of loyal juniors to the end and that if no one else recognizes people who serve the country, “I will.” Kihyun is moved by the words. A man who has spent his life under his brother’s shadow is now beginning to move toward a new center of power.

Kitae prepares another attempt on Hwang’s life. This time he exploits the weakness of Security Command Captain Min Jonghwan and orders him to plant a bomb inside the Joint Investigation Headquarters meeting room. But there is one thing Kitae does not know: the person who secretly removed the first bomb from Cheonungak was Jang Geonyoung.

Geonyoung already knows what Kitae is trying to do.

The Same Battle as Season 1 — Which of Them Will Survive?

Min Jonghwan enters the meeting room with the bomb exactly as planned, but Geonyoung is waiting for him. Min is captured as he tries to leave, everyone is evacuated, and Geonyoung personally disarms the bomb.

At the same time, Kitae attacks Hwang Daesik’s motorcade. After a barrage of gunfire, one vehicle finally stops, but Hwang is not inside. The man behind the wheel, apparently wounded, is Kihyun.

It was all a trap created by Geonyoung. He had predicted that Kitae would not only plant the meeting-room bomb but also try to draw Hwang outside and assassinate him separately. Hwang remained at Joint Investigation Headquarters while Kihyun was sent in his place. Geonyoung has taken the methods that once destroyed him and turned them back on Kitae.

Even Cheon Seokjung Abandons Baek Kitae

After the assassination attempt fails, Hwang Daesik pressures Cheon Seokjung. Cheon eventually appears at a press conference arranged by the Joint Investigation Headquarters and places the entire 70 billion won slush fund and every related crime on Kitae, even revealing that Kitae tried to assassinate Hwang in order to stop the investigation.

Geonyoung is furious. He did not fight this far just to wrap everything up neatly; he wanted both Cheon and Kitae investigated to the end. Hwang, however, says that he is the one who decides who ends and who begins. Geonyoung walks out, and Hwang orders Ahn Jaeho to find Kitae and kill him before the day is over.

Baek Kitae Has Nowhere Left to Go

Kitae becomes a fugitive. He calls Yuji in Japan and asks her to send a boat, but there are still people he needs to deal with before he leaves. He encounters Cheon Seokjung coming out of the president’s inner office carrying money, and when Cheon insists that he had no choice and asks Kitae to trust him, Kitae answers, “I have never trusted you.” Then he shoots him in the ear.

Back in his own office, Kitae finds Pyo Haksoo breaking into his safe. He shoots Pyo in the leg and points a gun at his forehead as Pyo begs for his life, but he does not kill him.

Pyo appears again later, alive. As if nothing has happened, he limps after the new center of power, Hwang Daesik.

Baek Kitae Turns His Gun on Jang Geonyoung

Kitae hears that Kihyun is in critical condition and goes to the hospital. The atmosphere feels wrong, and he realizes it is a trap, but it is already too late. Soldiers open fire, and Kitae’s subordinate blows up a medical oxygen cylinder to clear an escape route. Kitae is wounded as well, but he manages to get away in a car.

Geonyoung pursues Kitae’s vehicle. Kitae draws him into an isolated factory and appears behind him, shooting Geonyoung in the arm. Now Kitae has the chance to kill him, and he asks, “Do you still believe you’re right?”

Geonyoung answers, “The world has changed. The world doesn’t need you anymore. You’re finished.” But Kitae does not kill him and walks back toward his car. At that moment, another vehicle arrives, and Kihyun gets out, crying as he points a gun at his brother.

As Kitae looks at his younger brother, one thought seems to cross his mind: “I was a patriot. Everything I did was for this country.” Then a gunshot rings out, but the drama does not show him being hit or show his body afterward.

The Seat Baek Kitae Wanted

The final scene returns to the opening scene of Season 2, Episode 1. The president is speaking with Baek Kitae in the presidential office, and then leaves for the inner room with Shin, a mysterious shaman close to the president. While they are gone, Kitae sits in the president’s chair and puts a cigarette in his mouth.

That is where Season 2 leaves Kitae. Director Woo Min-ho has since confirmed in a post-finale interview that he is alive and will return in Season 3. The season ends his place in the old political order, while his story continues.

Made in Korea Season 2 Ending Explained

Made in Korea Season 2 leaves even more to explain after the story itself is over. Kitae survives, but the final gunshot still marks the end of his era. Why did he spare Jang Geonyoung at the very end, and what did Geonyoung mean when he said, “The world has changed”?

Who exactly is Shin, and why does Kitae’s final word, “Imja,” matter? And after Baek Kitae disappears, what kind of era is waiting under Hwang Daesik? I will break down those questions and the meaning of the Season 2 ending in a separate post.

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

Made in Korea Season 2 characters in a dark political thriller scene with the title Ending Explained and Drama Analysis.
Illustration: Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis / KwaveInsider

Basic Info

Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Won Ji-an, Seo Eun-soo, Jung Sung-il, Heo Jung-do
Episodes: 6
Season 1 Release: December 24, 2025 – January 14, 2026, on Disney+ and Hulu
Season 2 Release: September 9–23, 2026, with two episodes weekly, on Disney+ and Hulu

More on Made in Korea

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

Three central characters from Made in Korea Season 2 against a dark blue political-thriller background
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Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2: What Really Happened on October 26

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Did Baek Ki-tae Die? The Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

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Illustration: Netflix Korean Drama Agent Kim Reactivated / KwaveInsider

A Shop for Killers Season 1: What You Need to Know Before Season 2

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Baek Ki-tae aiming a rifle as military forces seize control in Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Did Baek Ki-tae Die? The Meaning of the Ending

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Did Baek Ki-tae really die? Director Woo Min-ho has now given a direct answer: Ki-tae is alive, and he will return in Season 3. But the final gunshot still marks the end of his era. Full spoilers.

When Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6 were released, I read the final scene as Baek Ki-tae’s death. Baek Ki-hyun points a gun at his brother, a shot rings out, and there was a bitter irony in the idea that Ki-tae, who spent his life protecting his family, would die at the hands of the younger brother he had tried to protect.

Director Woo Min-ho has since answered the question directly in a post-finale interview: Ki-tae is alive. Season 3 was already in preparation while Season 2 was being made, and Ki-tae will return.

That does not change my main reading of the Season 2 ending. Ki-tae survives, but his era is over. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), the institution that made his rise possible, is collapsing, and Hwang Dae-sik and the military are moving into the vacuum. The final gunshot marks the end of Ki-tae’s era.

His two deepest beliefs, family and patriotism, fall apart as well. The brother he spent his life protecting ends up pointing a gun at him, and his sister becomes addicted to the same drugs their family helped sell. Ki-tae survives, but the world he believed in has already beaten him.

Episode 5 — God’s Will

The Last 10 Seconds at Cheonungak—and Two Brothers Choose Different Sides

At Cheonungak, Ki-tae has planted a bomb beneath the table where Hwang Dae-sik and his group are drinking. But Ki-hyun arrives late, and Ki-tae eventually ends up sitting at the same table. Time continues to run down as Ki-tae and Geon-young exchange barbed remarks, while Ki-tae repeatedly tries to get his brother out of the room. Hwang stops him.

With alcohol flowing and people singing around him, Ki-tae secretly reaches beneath the table. With fewer than ten seconds remaining and essentially a fifty-fifty choice, he cuts the red wire. The bomb does not explode.

Later, Ki-hyun confronts his brother and asks what exactly he is planning. Then he draws a line between them. “The world has changed. Chief Secretary Cheon won’t make it out alive either.” He tells Ki-tae to leave for Japan while he still can. The brothers are now effectively on opposite sides.

Around the same time, Ki-tae visits So-young in the hospital after her drug use has put her there. Instead of promising to stop, she asks him to get her more drugs. She then breaks down, demands to know why he killed Kang Dae-il, and tells him never to come back.

Hwang Dae-sik Brings Ki-hyun to His Side

Hwang invites Ki-hyun and Ahn Jae-ho to his home and pours them ginseng liquor. He says that if no one else recognizes the people who devote themselves to the country, he will, and that is why he takes care of his juniors until the end. Ki-hyun is clearly affected by the gesture.

Meanwhile, Geon-young brings coffee to Cheon Seok-jung in the interrogation room and pressures him to give up Ki-tae. When Cheon refuses, Geon-young asks whether he is simply waiting for Hwang Dae-sik to die. He seems to have read Cheon correctly: Geon-young understands exactly what the old power broker is waiting for.

Ki-tae orders his men to investigate Hwang’s inner circle. They identify Security Command Captain Min Jong-hwan, whose uncle defected to North Korea and whose background records had once been erased. Ki-tae uses that vulnerability against him, but Min is not simply a reluctant victim. Tired of being treated like a nobody because he has no connections, he sees the assignment as an opportunity.

The next day, Min is told to carry a bag containing a bomb into the Joint Investigation Headquarters meeting room.

The Twist—Jang Geon-young Took the First Bomb

Pyo Hak-soo learns that Ki-tae’s side is trying to obtain explosives again and passes the information to Geon-young. That night, Geon-young enters the dark, empty Joint Investigation Headquarters office and opens a cabinet.

Inside is a bomb.

The person who removed the device from beneath the table at Cheonungak was Geon-young all along.

Episode 6 — Made in Korea

The Bomb Was Bait—and Hwang Was Never in the Car

Geon-young shows the Cheonungak bomb to Hwang but tells him the meeting must still go ahead. Min Jong-hwan enters the room with another explosive device, activates it, and prepares to leave. Geon-young calls his name, Min realizes that he has walked into a trap, and Ahn Jae-ho arrests him.

This bomb has a black wire and a yellow wire. This time, it is Geon-young who risks his life and cuts one of them to defuse it.

At the same moment, Ki-tae and his KCIA agents ambush Hwang’s motorcade. After intense gunfire, one vehicle finally comes to a stop, but Hwang Dae-sik is not inside. The man bleeding behind the wheel is Baek Ki-hyun, revealing that the entire operation was part of Geon-young’s plan.

Earlier that morning, Geon-young had already told Hwang what Ki-tae was trying to do. Ki-hyun was sent in Hwang’s place in the vehicle heading toward the safe house, while Hwang himself remained at Joint Investigation Headquarters. Geon-young had even anticipated that Ki-tae would try to draw Hwang outside and assassinate him.

Season 1 taught Geon-young what happens when he underestimates Baek Ki-tae, and he does not make the same mistake twice.

Cheon Seok-jung’s Press Conference—and the Final Betrayals

Cornered, Pyo Hak-soo offers to cooperate with Geon-young in exchange for control of the KCIA. Geon-young threatens him instead, and Pyo quickly drops the demand and hands over what he knows.

Madam Shin visits Cheon Seok-jung in the interrogation room, followed by Hwang Dae-sik, who points a gun at him and forces him to choose. Cheon eventually appears at a press conference arranged by the Joint Investigation Headquarters and announces that the entire slush fund belonged to Baek Ki-tae. He also claims that Ki-tae tried to kill Hwang to stop the investigation.

Geon-young confronts Hwang. This is not what he fought for. But Hwang tells him that he decides whose era ends and whose begins. Geon-young walks out, and Hwang orders Ahn Jae-ho to find Ki-tae and kill him before the day is over.

Ki-tae, now on the run, sees the broadcast. He later encounters Cheon Seok-jung coming out of the president’s inner office carrying bags of money. When Cheon asks him to trust him, Ki-tae answers, “I have never trusted you.”

Then he shoots Cheon in the ear.

Back at his own office, Ki-tae catches Pyo Hak-soo breaking into his safe. He shoots Pyo in the leg and points the gun directly at his forehead as Pyo begs for his life.

Did Pyo Hak-soo die?

Baek Ki-tae’s Final Scene

Ki-tae hears that Ki-hyun has been hospitalized and goes to see him. He senses that something is wrong with the deserted hospital, but by then it is too late. Soldiers open fire, and an oxygen cylinder explodes in the chaos. Ki-tae escapes in a car, but not before being shot.

Geon-young pursues Ki-tae’s vehicle. They finally face each other inside an isolated factory, where Ki-tae shoots Geon-young in the arm and knocks the gun from his hand.

“Do you still believe you’re right?”

Geon-young answers.

“The world has changed. The world doesn’t need you anymore. You’re finished.”

Ki-tae does not kill him. He walks back toward his car, and another vehicle suddenly appears. Ki-hyun gets out, raises his gun, and points it at his brother.

As Ki-tae looks at his younger brother, one thought seems to pass through his mind:

“I was a patriot. Everything I did was for this country.”

Ki-hyun appears to pull the trigger, and a shot rings out. But the drama never shows Ki-tae being hit, and it never shows his body afterward. On the scene alone, reading it as his death was entirely reasonable.

Those Who Remain

When So-young’s daughter Min-ju enters the room, So-young quickly hides the methamphetamine she is holding and pretends that everything is fine. It does not look as though she will escape the addiction anytime soon.

As Geon-young leaves Joint Investigation Headquarters, Hwang offers him a handshake and asks where the 70 billion won went. Geon-young says it has been safely returned to the national treasury. Ahn Jae-ho then hands him a suit, and Hwang tells him he will need one if he is going to open a law office. It sounds as if Hwang intends to make sure Geon-young is pardoned, although whether that will actually happen is another matter.

Pyo Hak-soo is alive. With his injured leg, he limps desperately after Hwang and the soldiers around him. It is fitting for a man who has spent the entire season watching not whom he should be loyal to, but who is likely to survive. Baek Ki-tae’s era ends, and Pyo immediately starts running after the next center of power.

Geon-young and Ki-hyun also cross paths on their way to work. Geon-young asks, “Any regrets?” Ki-hyun does not answer.

Geon-young remembers what he once said to Ki-tae: claiming that the times had gone mad was only an excuse, because in the end everyone still made their own choices. To catch Ki-tae, Geon-young himself had sold his patriotism to those in power.

The final scene returns to the past—to the opening of Season 2, Episode 1. The former president and Madam Shin enter the inner room while Ki-tae presses his ear against the door, unable to hear anything. He then sits in the president’s chair, puts one of the president’s cigarettes in his mouth, and says one word.

“Imja.”

Baek Ki-tae Is Alive

The scene left room for doubt, and Woo Min-ho’s post-finale interview settles it: Ki-tae is definitely alive. He was written to die in the original script, but Woo changed the ending during production. As Woo explains it, Ki-tae does not die with the gunshot; he disappears from that era.

That explanation lines up with what the gunshot means. Ki-tae rose alongside the KCIA, and after the October 26 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, that political order begins to crumble while the military power represented by Hwang Dae-sik starts to rise. The shot signals the end of the 1970s political world that made Ki-tae possible. He survives, but he still loses in Season 2.

The man survives. His era does not.

This is no longer an open ending in the usual sense. Woo said Season 3 was already in preparation while Season 2 was being made, and that Ki-tae will return. The final scene is his exit from this era, not his death.

The Battle of Wits Between Geon-young and Ki-tae

In Season 1, just as Ki-tae and Cheon Seok-jung’s corruption is about to be exposed, Ki-tae sets a trap. Knowing that Pyo Hak-soo is after Cheon’s recordings, he deliberately leaves behind evidence implicating the presidential chief secretary, leading Pyo to betray Geon-young. Ki-tae then turns his own interrogation into a reversal in which Geon-young is arrested on corruption charges.

Season 2 almost completely flips that structure. Pyo moves again, but this time Geon-young realizes what Ki-tae is doing and uses the information to drive him into a corner. Sending Ki-hyun in Hwang’s place becomes the move that finally breaks Ki-tae’s plan.

Ki-tae was the one who won in Season 1. In Season 2, Geon-young learns Ki-tae’s methods and turns them back on him. I have to give the director and writers credit for building the season around that reversal.

Why Doesn’t Ki-tae Kill Geon-young?

Ki-tae does not see himself as a villain. He genuinely believes that what he has done was an act of patriotism, and even after losing almost everything, he does not completely let go of that belief. He may also understand that killing Geon-young would not restore the power or political world that has already collapsed around him.

This scene can also no longer be read as the last word on their relationship. With Ki-tae returning in Season 3, what happened between him and Geon-young may not have ended in Season 2.

In Season 1, Ki-tae defeated Geon-young. In Season 2, Geon-young learned how Ki-tae operated and used those methods to bring him down. Both men survive, which leaves their next confrontation open for Season 3.

“The World Has Changed”—What Does That Line Mean?

Geon-young’s words to Ki-tae sound almost like a line running through modern Korean history. In the drama, the Park Chung-hee era is a time when personal sacrifice is demanded in the name of economic development, and even corrupt methods can be excused if they are supposedly used for the country. Ki-tae sells drugs and kills people, yet still calls what he does patriotism.

That era is now ending, and another arrives claiming to stand for justice. But the “justice” represented by Hwang Dae-sik—and by the real Chun Doo-hwan whom Hwang’s position strongly evokes—was a justice defined by a small military faction around him. For most Koreans, what followed was another dictatorship and another struggle for democracy. The country therefore moves from an era in which almost anything could be postponed for economic growth into an era in which power presents itself as justice.

After the December 12, 1979 military rebellion, Chun Doo-hwan and the New Military Group consolidated control of the armed forces. The June Democratic Struggle forced the regime to accept direct presidential elections in 1987, but Roh Tae-woo—a former general, one of Chun’s closest allies, and the ruling party candidate—won the election that followed. South Korea’s first civilian government in more than three decades began under Kim Young-sam in 1993, more than thirteen years after 1979.

Ki-tae does not die, but the KCIA-centered political order he represents is coming to an end. That makes Geon-young’s line, “The world has changed,” bigger than one man’s downfall. It reads closer to a declaration that the people and institutions holding power are being replaced.

Who Is Madam Shin?

Madam Shin is clearly some kind of shaman, but she does not resemble a typical Korean mudang. The production blends Korean shamanic elements with visual cues that may feel Japanese to some Korean viewers, creating a character whose rituals do not fit neatly into either tradition.

Park Chung-hee attended the Manchukuo Army Military Academy before continuing his military education at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. He later served as an officer in the Manchukuo Army, was fluent in Japanese, and was known to sing Japanese military songs at drinking gatherings.

What I have not found is credible evidence that Park himself was deeply involved in Japanese-style shamanism. Madam Shin’s rituals are therefore better understood as a fictional element created for the drama rather than something directly based on Park’s documented life.

Who Really Held Power at This Point?

The drama still portrays the KCIA as an organization capable of fighting Hwang almost on equal terms. Historically, the situation was very different. After KCIA Director Kim Jae-gyu assassinated President Park, the KCIA and other old centers of power were badly weakened, while Chun Doo-hwan, as head of the Joint Investigation Headquarters, gained unusually broad investigative and intelligence authority.

However, the most powerful formal military command still belonged to Army Chief of Staff and Martial Law Commander Jeong Seung-hwa. Jeong was preparing personnel moves to curb Chun and his faction’s overreach, but Chun’s side learned of the plan first. On December 12, 1979, they mobilized troops and arrested Jeong, publicly claiming that he needed to be investigated for alleged involvement with Kim Jae-gyu in the October 26 assassination.

The most accurate way to describe the real Hwang Dae-sik—or rather, Chun Doo-hwan at the historical position Hwang evokes—is this: he was already extremely powerful, but he was not yet the final winner. The event that made him that winner was the December 12 military rebellion.

The Best Scene in the Drama

For me, the best scene in the drama is still the expression on Ki-tae’s face when his younger brother points a gun at him.

Ki-tae has spent his life believing that everything he did was for his country and his family. Yet in the final moment, the younger brother he tried to protect is the one pointing a gun at him. Knowing now that Ki-tae survives, the scene loses very little of its power.

His physical survival is not what matters most in that moment. Ki-tae is being rejected by the family he tried to protect and by the political era that gave him power. What collapses in front of him is the logic he used to justify his entire life.

Hyun Bin does not explain any of this through dialogue. The blank expression, the coldness in his eyes, and the red light cutting across the scene are enough to show the moment Ki-tae realizes that his era is over.

What Does Ki-tae’s Final Word “Imja” Mean?

In the final scene, Ki-tae sits in the president’s chair, puts a cigarette in his mouth, and says one word.

“Imja.”

To an international viewer, it may sound meaningless. In older Korean, imja could be used for a spouse, but it was also a familiar way of addressing someone—often someone of similar or lower status. It is rarely heard in ordinary modern Korean conversation.

The word is particularly associated with Park Chung-hee’s way of speaking to officials around him. Former officials’ recollections preserve examples such as Park telling Seoul Mayor Jeong Sang-cheon, “Imja, why don’t we try hosting the Olympics?” and addressing economic official Kim Yong-hwan with the same expression.

When Ki-tae sits in the president’s chair and says “Imja,” he is therefore doing more than imitating an old-fashioned speech pattern. For a moment, he becomes Park Chung-hee.

Throughout the series, Ki-tae insists that he does not want money for its own sake and that everything he does is for the country. Yet this final scene reveals that somewhere inside him, his desire had already reached the president’s chair.

The word can also carry different emotional associations in Korea. To people who remember Park positively, it may sound like an old-fashioned, familiar part of his personality. To people who view his authoritarian rule critically, the same word can evoke the hierarchy and power of that era.

Ending Season 2 with “Imja” therefore leaves one final question hanging over Ki-tae’s patriotism: did he really want to serve the country, or did he ultimately want the chair?

What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik Next?

Ki-tae does not die here. He disappears from history for a time, while Hwang Dae-sik’s era is only beginning. Hwang is a fictional character, but his position in 1979 strongly evokes the rise of the real-life Chun Doo-hwan.

What followed for Chun in actual history was not decline. The December 12 military coup, the consolidation of military power, and eventually the acquisition of far greater political authority all came afterward. That is what makes the ending so unsettling.

The fact that Ki-tae survives does not make the ending any happier. The political power he represented is collapsing, while a different and potentially more dangerous force is beginning to replace it. Another political order is already taking shape.

And Ki-tae’s story is not over. The question is no longer whether he is alive, but what kind of Korea he will return to, and what kind of man he will be when he does.

I covered Hwang Dae-sik’s possible future—and Chun Doo-hwan’s rise and fall—in a separate article. If you are unfamiliar with modern Korean history, it changes the way the ending of Season 2 looks.

Made in Korea 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Basic Info

  • Drama: Made in Korea Season 2
  • Episodes: 5–6 of 6
  • Release Date: September 23, 2026
  • Director: Woo Min-ho
  • Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
  • Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Won Ji-an, Seo Eun-soo, Jung Sung-il, Heo Jung-do
  • Genre: Political Crime Thriller
  • Where to Watch: Hulu in the US, Disney+ internationally
  • Spoilers: Full spoilers

More Made in Korea Coverage

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained—Before Season 2

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Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2: What Really Happened on October 26

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3–4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

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Hwang Dae-sik contrasted with the real military figure who inspired his historical context

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Hwang Dae-sik is fictional, but almost every Korean viewer naturally sees him as Chun Doo-hwan. The real history behind that comparison explains why Hwang’s future feels so ominous.

Is Hwang Dae-sik Chun Doo-hwan?

When Hwang Dae-sik appears in Made in Korea Season 2, Korean viewers naturally think of Chun Doo-hwan. Hwang is a fictional character, but his position as military security commander in 1979, the military’s growing influence after the president’s assassination, and his use of the Joint Investigation Headquarters to expand his power all strongly evoke Chun’s rise.

This article reads Hwang’s story through that historical parallel. It does not assume that the drama will reproduce every event of Chun’s life, but the resemblance raises an unavoidable question: how far will he go?

The drama has yet to give us its answer. History already has.

Spoiler note: This article discusses scenes from Episodes 1–4 and the historical events they evoke. It does not reveal or confirm the ending of unreleased episodes.

After Park Chung-hee’s Death, a Brief Opening for Democracy

President Park Chung-hee was assassinated on October 26, 1979, abruptly ending nearly eighteen years in power. His death raised hopes that South Korea might finally move toward democracy. Opposition politicians, students, and civil society began pushing for political change during the period remembered as the “Seoul Spring.”

Yet while those hopes were growing, another struggle was unfolding within the military. On December 12, 1979, Chun Doo-hwan and his allies mobilized troops, arrested Army Chief of Staff Jeong Seung-hwa, and seized control of the military. They justified Jeong’s arrest by alleging his involvement in the assassination of Park, whose killer was Korean Central Intelligence Agency director Kim Jae-gyu.

In Episodes 3–4, Hwang threatens even the army chief of staff while presenting himself as a man determined to punish corruption. His willingness to turn investigative authority against his own superior recalls the way Chun used the assassination investigation to strengthen his position within the military.

At this point in the drama, Hwang is still on the near side of December 12. Baek Ki-tae and the other characters do not know what lies ahead, but Korean viewers recognize the historical danger gathering around them.

For a gripping dramatization of the military rebellion, I strongly recommend 12.12: The Day, released in Korea as Seoul Spring. Korean filmmakers have a remarkable ability to turn this painful history into compelling cinema.

Chun Did Not Stop After December 12

The December rebellion gave Chun and his allies control of the military, but it did not immediately extinguish the democracy movement. Through the spring of 1980, demands for political reform continued even as the military faction extended its influence over politics and the intelligence services.

On May 17, the military leadership expanded martial law nationwide. Political activity was banned, universities were closed, and opposition figures were arrested or placed under house arrest. The following day, protests began in Gwangju. Brutal assaults by martial law troops helped turn those protests into a wider citizens’ uprising, which the military ultimately crushed with lethal force.

The Seoul Spring ended in repression and bloodshed. These were successive stages in the seizure of power: first the military, then the political system, with citizens paying the price for resisting.

To understand something of what happened in Gwangju, I also strongly recommend A Taxi Driver. Its story follows a taxi driver and a German journalist into the city as the violence unfolds.

The General Who Became President

On August 27, 1980, Chun was elected South Korea’s eleventh president at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul. The public did not vote directly for him. Instead, delegates to the National Conference for Unification cast the ballots: 2,525 participated, Chun received 2,524 votes, and one ballot was invalid. He was the only candidate and took office on September 1.

This was a rubber-stamp election conducted after Chun had already secured power through military force and political repression. The expression “gymnasium election” became a derisive shorthand for the undemocratic indirect presidential elections associated with this era. The problem was not simply that the election was indirect, but that voters had no meaningful opportunity to choose a competing political future.

His government continued to suppress demands for democracy, but in June 1987, nationwide protests forced a turning point. Students were joined by office workers and people from many other walks of life. Faced with sustained public pressure, the regime conceded to demands for a constitutional amendment allowing direct presidential elections, announced in Roh Tae-woo’s June 29 Declaration.

That victory belonged to the people who had fought for it. It did not, however, immediately remove Chun’s political circle from power.

Hwang Dae-sik and the Real Rise and Fall

The presidential election took place in December 1987, while Chun was still in office. Opposition leaders Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung failed to unite behind a single candidate, splitting the opposition vote and helping Chun’s close ally and fellow former general, Roh Tae-woo, win the presidency. Roh took office in February 1988.

South Koreans had regained the right to elect their president directly, but the presidency remained in the hands of the military faction through Roh’s five-year term. Kim Young-sam’s election in 1992 and inauguration in February 1993 marked the arrival of a civilian administration, although he had reached office as the governing party’s candidate after merging his party with Roh’s in 1990.

Legal accountability for Chun and his allies came much later than their seizure of power. Public pressure for investigations continued, and the exposure of Chun and Roh’s slush funds in 1995 helped bring demands for prosecution to a head. Special legislation was passed that year, and the military faction’s leading figures were brought to trial.

In August 1996, a trial court sentenced Chun to death. An appeals court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment that December, and the Supreme Court upheld it on April 17, 1997. Other senior figures also received prison sentences for their roles in the rebellion and the subsequent seizure of power.

Then, on December 22, 1997, President Kim Young-sam pardoned Chun and Roh following an agreement with President-elect Kim Dae-jung, himself a victim of Chun’s political persecution. National reconciliation was the justification.

I believe that pardon was a mistake. A conviction had finally established responsibility, but the pardon cut short the punishment. To me, national reconciliation without genuine remorse from those responsible left something fundamental unresolved.

Arguments defending the December rebellion and justifying the repression in Gwangju have persisted, while victims and their families have had to continue fighting for truth and recognition. The pardon did not create every subsequent distortion of that history, but I see it as a failure to hold those responsible fully accountable. Justice may eventually prevail, yet resistance to it can be fierce and enduring.

That is the real rise and fall behind Hwang’s story: a climb to the presidency, a belated conviction, and a punishment cut short.

What Chun Doo-hwan Means to Koreans

This requires some explanation for viewers unfamiliar with Korean history. Park Chung-hee remains a deeply divisive figure: some emphasize industrialization and economic growth, while others focus on his dictatorship, the Yushin system, and political repression.

Chun’s name carries a different historical weight. He seized military power through the December 12 rebellion, and the subsequent consolidation of his rule involved the violent suppression of citizens demanding democracy. His criminal responsibility was established in court, with a life sentence ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court.

For Koreans, his name evokes an era when soldiers seized political power, turned their weapons on civilians, and crushed democratic aspirations. He cannot simply be discussed as a former president whose achievements and failures belong on opposite sides of a balance sheet. Military rebellion, Gwangju, state violence, and the people who died are inseparable from his legacy.

That is why a character occupying his historical position brings so much more to the screen than the threat of another ambitious general.

Korean Democracy Still Lives with That History

Chun died in 2021, but his death did not resolve the questions left by his rule. The struggle to establish the truth about Gwangju, hold perpetrators accountable, compensate victims, and preserve their memory has lasted for decades.

The eventual official recognition of May 18 as a democratization movement, its designation as a national commemorative day, and the recognition of its participants were achievements won through prolonged political and social struggle. They were not concessions the victims received easily.

For that reason, Chun belongs to more than a closed chapter in a history book. Remembering what happened under his rule—and preventing the repetition of state violence—remains part of the work of Korean democracy.

So What Will Happen to Hwang Dae-sik?

This brings us back to Made in Korea. Hwang is fictional, and the drama may take him in a different direction, but the historical outline is familiar: a military security commander in 1979, a president’s assassination, a powerful investigative headquarters, a struggle with the KCIA, and growing influence within the armed forces.

For viewers who know modern Korean history, those elements point toward a deeply unsettling possibility. Hwang’s next stage may be his rise, not his fall. In the real history, the December rebellion was followed by military dominance, the expansion of political power, and ultimately the presidency. His downfall came much later, after so many people had suffered and died in the struggle for democracy.

Hwang therefore does not look like a villain whose defeat is necessarily around the corner. His story may only be beginning. The drama has not revealed how closely it will follow history, but Korean viewers already know how far the man who once occupied that position went.

What makes Hwang Dae-sik frightening is not just the power he holds now. It is knowing how far the real man who once held that position would rise—and how many people would suffer along the way.

More on Made in Korea

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

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Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

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Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3–4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Baek Ki-tae’s Death—and the Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

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Two men caught in a rain-soaked armed confrontation in Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Episodes 3 and 4 tell the story of Jang Geonyoung (Jang Geon-young): how he survived two years in prison and the seven years after his release, and what kind of man he has become. The key linking both episodes is Cheon Seokjung’s (Cheon Seok-jung) ₩70 billion slush fund and the ledger documenting it. Full spoilers follow.

Episode 3 — The Enemy of My Enemy

Jang Geonyoung’s Seven Years, Spent Searching Through Trash

Two months earlier, Jang Geonyoung wanders through an alley looking destitute. He meets Colonel Ahn Jaeho (Ahn Jae-ho), his junior from high school and now a senior officer in the Defense Security Command, for a drink.

Jang spent two years in prison and supported himself with construction work after his release. For the next seven years, he searched through discarded documents and trash for evidence. What he hands Colonel Ahn is material concerning Cheon Seokjung’s ₩70 billion slush fund. He asks for one thing in return: a pardon and reinstatement of his civil rights if he helps bring down Cheon Seokjung and Baek Kitae (Baek Ki-tae).

The Tunnel Reunion and ₩70 Billion

Now serving as a special adviser to the Defense Security Command, Jang Geonyoung takes a handgun from his office and heads out. On a rain-soaked night, soldiers open fire on the convoy carrying Baek Kitae, Ikeda Yuji, and the money brought in from Japan, forcing the vehicles to stop inside a tunnel.

A window lowers, and Jang Geonyoung and Baek Kitae face each other for the first time in seven years. Baek tries to overrule the soldiers with his rank, but they say they are acting on orders from Hwang Daesik (Hwang Dae-sik) of the Joint Investigation Headquarters. A yakuza member has smuggled ₩70 billion into Korea, they explain, and the acting director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency is traveling with her.

The money is seized, and Ikeda Yuji is arrested. Jang turns away from the furious Baek, then abruptly draws his pistol and fires into Baek’s car.

Cheon Seokjung flies into a rage when Pyo Haksoo (Pyo Hak-soo) reports that all the money has been taken. It was not merely a hidden reserve. It was the political fund meant to make Cheon president.

Why Hwang Daesik Wants Money, Not Drugs

Hwang Daesik is delighted by the seized ₩70 billion, but he stops Jang Geonyoung from immediately raiding Baekho Trading. The factory is where Baek Kitae’s sister, Baek Soyoung (Baek So-young), has been producing drugs on a large scale.

Hwang’s reasoning is revealing. Arresting Baek for drugs would disgrace the former president and damage the legitimacy of the state. If they want a clean case, he says, they must leave the drugs out and prosecute the money instead.

What the Joint Investigation Headquarters needs, therefore, is not proof of drug production but a ledger linking Cheon Seokjung’s political funds to Baek Kitae. The goal is not to uncover the truth. It is to select the version of the truth the state can afford to acknowledge. This scene anticipates how the new military regime will manage power.

“Have You Changed, Sir?”

Ikeda Yuji is taken to an interrogation room at the Joint Investigation Headquarters. When prosecutor Oh Yejin (Oh Ye-jin) arrives, Jang Geonyoung abruptly assigns the questioning to her.

Ikeda dismisses Oh, assuming her Japanese citizenship will protect her. Jang watches, leaves the door open, and enters the room himself. He demands Cheon Seokjung’s slush-fund ledger. When Ikeda asks him to contact her embassy, he replies that a Korea under emergency martial law is a profoundly unreasonable place. Then he tells her to listen to the screams outside.

The soldiers begin torturing Ikeda, and Oh Yejin walks out. When Oh later tries to request a warrant for Baek Soyoung, Jang stops her again. He wants the ledger first so they can arrest Cheon Seokjung, then move against Baek Kitae.

Oh asks whether torture is really necessary to catch Baek. Jang snaps back: why treat people like human beings when they do not behave like human beings?

“Prosecutor Oh, you have not changed even after becoming a prosecutor. The world is changing.”

Oh answers with a question.

“Have you changed, sir?”

The Hotel Gunfight Over the Slush-Fund Ledger

Ikeda eventually breaks under torture and reveals where the ledger is hidden. It did not arrive with the cash. A yakuza member named Takahashi Kajio is carrying it separately.

Baek Kitae also knows that everything is over if the ledger reaches the Joint Investigation Headquarters. He mobilizes the Korean Central Intelligence Agency’s network and locates Takahashi at a hotel. When Takahashi enters the room, Baek demands the ledger, but Takahashi refuses to surrender it without Ikeda Yuji’s authorization.

Jang Geonyoung and soldiers from the Joint Investigation Headquarters storm the hotel. Takahashi flees with the ledger, and a gunfight erupts between Baek and the soldiers. Takahashi is shot and killed. The ledger he was carrying ends up in Jang Geonyoung’s hands.

Jang gives the ledger to Hwang Daesik. Hwang rejoices that they can now arrest everyone. The ₩70 billion seized in the tunnel and the ledger recovered at the hotel together complete the case against Cheon Seokjung.

Baek returns to the ownerless presidential office where Cheon is sitting. Cheon berates him for losing the ledger, but Baek has no answer. In the end, he says he will kill Hwang Daesik himself.

Episode 4 — The Beginning of the End

Why Baek Kihyun Can Never Escape His Brother

Episode 4 opens during Baek Kihyun’s (Baek Ki-hyun) high school years. Another student is beating him inside a remote warehouse and has even taken his older brother’s gun. During the struggle, Kihyun kills the student with the weapon.

Baek Kitae arrives and cleans up the scene without asking a single question. At the time, he is a captain in the Special Warfare Command.

Kihyun says that everything began that day. It was the moment his brother saved him, but also the moment he became unable to escape his brother for the rest of his life.

Cheon Seokjung’s ₩70 Billion Makes the Front Page

Using the ledger Jang Geonyoung recovered, the Joint Investigation Headquarters exposes Cheon Seokjung’s ₩70 billion slush fund to the public. Its plan to prosecute Cheon for illegal political funds rather than drugs is now in motion.

Colonel Ahn tells Jang that Cheon will be arrested. Oh Yejin insists that Baek Kitae and Cheon Seokjung should be investigated for drugs, but Jang and the colonel refuse to abandon the political-funds case. The three argue loudly in the office.

When the arrest warrant is issued, Baek Kihyun alerts one of Baek Kitae’s men. He remains his brother’s faithful rat.

Cheon gives up trying to flee when he hears about the warrant. Instead, he orders Baek Kitae to kill Hwang Daesik.

Baek Kihyun conducts Cheon’s first interrogation, a deliberate assignment intended by Jang Geonyoung to unsettle him. The room is equipped with torture implements and facilities for water torture despite being called an interrogation room. When Cheon invokes his right to remain silent, Jang suspends the questioning for the moment.

“Come Back Alive, and Let’s Try Being in Love”

After her release from the Joint Investigation Headquarters, Ikeda Yuji stays at a hotel under surveillance. Baek Kitae overpowers the investigator blocking his way, takes the man’s gun, and goes to see her.

Ikeda asks Baek to leave for Japan with her. He can still survive if he leaves Korea now, but he refuses. She tells him to come back alive. If he does, she says, the two of them should try being in love for real. Baek agrees.

It is almost the only love scene in the entire drama. Leaving for Japan may have been their last chance, but Baek cannot bring himself to go.

The Newspaper Beneath the Ramyeon and Soju

Jang Geonyoung returns to Cheon Seokjung’s interrogation room carrying ramyeon and soju. Beneath them, used almost like a tray, is a newspaper whose front page is dominated by the story of Cheon’s ₩70 billion slush fund.

Cheon sees the headline himself. Not long ago, he sat in an ownerless presidential chair and imagined himself as the country’s next ruler. Now he is sitting in a torture room, staring at the public exposure of his own secret funds. The ledger Jang seized has become the instrument of Cheon’s political collapse.

When Cheon maintains his imperious manner and refuses to talk, Jang summons the investigators. He remarks that the younger men have learned Cheon’s own torture techniques well. They force Cheon’s face into a filthy toilet and begin torturing him with water.

Fourteen Minutes at Cheonungak

Baek Kitae’s operation begins. Hwang Daesik, his subordinates and associates, and Jang Geonyoung gather for drinks at Cheonungak, a yojeong—an upscale traditional venue where female hostesses serve and entertain powerful guests. Korean Central Intelligence Agency operatives have already planted a bomb beneath the table.

Watching from a distance, Baek presses the detonator. The bomb will explode in twenty minutes, and it can be stopped only by cutting the red wire rather than the blue one.

Then an unexpected complication appears: Baek Kihyun has joined the gathering. Fourteen minutes remain.

A group of uninvited women in hanbok suddenly enters. Baek has brought them so he can gain access to the room. He greets Hwang as if nothing is wrong, but the clock continues to run. He must cut the red wire without anyone noticing.

What Does “The Beginning of the End” Mean?

Episode 4 begins with Baek Kihyun’s narration. He says the end of everything began on the day he killed someone with his brother’s gun as a high school student. From then on, Kihyun could not escape the brother who had saved him, while Baek Kitae sank deeper into crime in the name of protecting him.

But “the beginning of the end” seems to mean more than the brothers’ fate. The era represented by Cheon Seokjung, the Blue House, and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency is fading, while an era dominated by soldiers under Hwang Daesik is beginning. The moment the ledger reaches the Joint Investigation Headquarters, that transfer of power accelerates.

If Hwang wins, the old order ends, but justice does not begin. A more violent and overt form of power takes its place.

Jang Geonyoung intends to use Hwang and the Joint Investigation Headquarters to destroy Baek Kitae. Yet as he hastens Baek’s end, he may be helping a greater evil begin. That is the real source of unease in Episodes 3 and 4. The moment Jang joins forces with his enemy’s enemy, the age of a new villain begins.

Did Korea’s Political Elite Really Get Involved in Drugs?

The drama depicts drug profits flowing into the inner circle of the Blue House and becoming political funds. The public record of South Korea’s drug trade in the 1970s, however, looks somewhat different.

Methamphetamine production and smuggling to Japan were driven mainly by private manufacturers and criminal organizations. Officials were bribed, and protection from investigators did exist, but no established public record shows a presidential chief-of-staff-level figure directly operating a drug business to finance politics.

Those in power had other ways to accumulate money. Chun Doo-hwan—whom the fictional Hwang Daesik clearly evokes—was convicted of taking enormous sums from business leaders during his rise and presidency. In 1997, South Korea’s Supreme Court finalized a forfeiture order of ₩220.5 billion against him, an almost unimaginable amount at the time.

“Let Political Soldiers Pull Your Strings, and They Will Betray You in the End”

Oh Yejin says this to Jang Geonyoung after the colonel leaves.

To anyone familiar with modern Korean history, the line sounds like a prophecy. After the December 12, 1979 military coup, the new military faction centered on Chun Doo-hwan claimed it was restoring justice and order but built another dictatorship instead. It betrayed the public it claimed to protect.

In the drama, Jang is using Hwang Daesik and the Joint Investigation Headquarters to catch Baek Kitae. It is not yet clear, however, which side is using the other.

Is Jang Geonyoung Becoming Baek Kitae?

The most unsettling figure in Episodes 3 and 4 is Jang Geonyoung.

He tortures Ikeda Yuji to learn the ledger’s location. He blocks Oh Yejin’s drug investigation and determines the direction of the case according to political calculations. Then he asks why people who are not human should be treated like human beings.

It is the same logic Baek Kitae used in Season 1.

In Season 1, Jang believed in the law, while Baek looked for the people who could move the law. Seven years later, Jang is now looking for those people himself. If he defeats Baek Kitae, who has really won?

The Real People Who Fought for Democracy

There are almost no good people in this series, apart from Oh Yejin. The real era often felt that way. The words of good people were buried and went unheard. Righteous people disappeared without anyone knowing; it was part of everyday life.

It was one of the darkest periods in modern Korean history, and many people died before the country regained democracy.

Made in Korea reconstructs the period as an exaggerated crime drama. But outside the drama, countless people truly fought for democracy. To learn about them, watch 1987: When the Day Comes, which follows the people who tried to expose the authorities’ cover-up of a university student’s death during police interrogation.

In the United States, the film is available on Rakuten Viki and can be watched free with ads on The Roku Channel. I strongly recommend it. By the time the film ends, you may understand why many Koreans consider resistance to unjust power a civic obligation.

Basic Info

  • Drama: Made in Korea Season 2
  • Episodes: 3-4 of 6
  • Episodes 3-4 Release Date: September 16, 2026
  • Director: Woo Min-ho
  • Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
  • Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Won Ji-an, Seo Eun-soo, Jung Sung-il, Heo Jung-do
  • Genre: Political Crime Thriller
  • Where to Watch: Hulu in the US, Disney+ internationally
  • Spoilers: Full spoilers

More Made in Korea Guides

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

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Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1-2: What Really Happened on October 26

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Baek Ki-tae’s Death—and the Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

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Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Soldiers firing in heavy rain surrounded by key scenes from Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1-2: What Really Happened on October 26

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

The president is killed and Baek Kitae becomes acting KCIA director. What actually happened in history, and what the drama changed. Full spoilers.

Season 1 looked good but often felt like separate incidents forced together. Season 2 is different. There’s real pleasure in watching these villains maneuver inside a history whose ending we already know.

Everything from here is a full spoiler for episodes 1 and 2.

Nine Years Later, Kitae Meets the President as KCIA Deputy Director

Baek Kitae, now a deputy director of the KCIA, meets the president privately. The president tells him that KCIA director Cho has been looking at him differently lately, and to keep an eye on the man.

Mass protests break out in Busan and Masan. Three men meet to respond: chief presidential secretary Cheon Seok-jung, director Cho, and presidential security chief Gwak. Cho argues against provoking the public. Gwak wants to roll tanks over them. They trade insults.

Leaving the room, a furious Cho tells Kitae that someday he’ll have to end this himself, and that only then will everyone survive.

Nine Years Later, Baek Kitae Still Calls It Patriotism

Nine years have made Kitae and Cheon Seok-jung close enough to call each other brothers. The drug operation has grown enormously, managed by his sister So-young.

When his aide asks why they never sell domestically, Kitae answers: would you want to poison this beautiful country? And he calls it patriotism. It’s the same conviction he held in Season 1.

A Succession War in Osaka

Ikeda Yuji is maneuvering to become the next boss. Winning over Harimoto, the Tokyo branch head, would let her beat the front-runner Kimura. In exchange, she asks Kitae to release Harimoto’s brother, held in Korea on espionage charges.

At Ikeda’s funeral, the vote for successor goes against Yuji. Then Kitae and his agents storm the room and shoot the bodyguards. Yuji cuts down both Kimura and Harimoto, who broke his promise, and takes the top seat herself.

What Kitae Sees in Busan

What Kitae finds in Busan is soldiers beating civilians indiscriminately, and a KCIA branch office filled with the sounds of torture. His old colleague Pyo Hak-soo now runs it as branch chief. Kitae releases Harimoto’s brother.

October 26, 1979 — Gungjeong-dong

At a safe house in Gungjeong-dong, the president drinks with Cheon Seok-jung, Gwak, and Cho. Gwak says Cambodia killed three million and pushes again for tanks against the protesters. Cho snaps and tells the president to govern with some perspective. The president answers: you want to die?

Cheon steps out briefly and calls Kitae, saying Cho looks ready to do something. Kitae arrives at the safe house just as gunshots ring out. Inside, the president and Gwak are dead.

Who Actually Captured Director Cho?

The next day, at the Defense Security Command, Baek Kihyun interrogates his own brother. Kitae eats jajangmyeon through the questioning — noodles delivered to an interrogation room, eaten with complete ease. In Korea it reads instantly as a man who knows he isn’t in any real danger, and as an insult to the officer across the table.

He tells Kihyun to ask the army chief of staff who actually captured director Cho. It was Kitae.

That night, Kitae had intercepted him. Cho was leaving with the army chief of staff, who had also been at the safe house, intending to drive to KCIA headquarters — to win over the man holding military authority and seize power himself. Kitae told him to head to Army Headquarters instead, saying he’d handle the KCIA. Then he called Army Headquarters and had Cho arrested.

Kitae Becomes Acting Director of the KCIA

The chief of staff becomes martial law commander. Under emergency martial law, that position carries sweeping authority to direct and supervise administrative and judicial bodies within the martial law zone.

He appoints Kitae acting director of the KCIA — a move meant to check Hwang Daesik, commander of the Defense Security Command. Hwang is already ignoring the martial law commander who outranks him. He takes the top job at the Joint Investigation Headquarters and starts using its investigative powers to tear the KCIA apart.

“Let’s Cross the Han River Bridge”

Kitae tells Cheon Seok-jung they should cross the Han River bridge together. When Park Chung Hee launched his own coup in 1961, his troops crossed the Han River bridges into Seoul. In the context of this drama, the phrase amounts to proposing a coup. To win over the martial law commander, Kitae orders all his money in Japan brought home.

Meanwhile, Oh Ye-jin has become Korea’s first female prosecutor and restarts her drug investigation in Busan. The Joint Investigation Headquarters, realizing the drug money belongs to Cheon Seok-jung, summons her. At the same time, Baek Kihyun is assigned to investigate Cheon’s slush fund.

Before dawn, the convoy carrying Kitae, Yuji, and the money from Japan is stopped by soldiers opening fire. Through the open window, Jang Geonyoung speaks. Long time no see.

Who Was Actually in the Gungjeong-dong Safe House?

The real dinner included President Park Chung Hee, security chief Cha Ji-chul, and KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu — but also Kim Gye-won, the chief presidential secretary. Singer Shim Soo-bong and Shin Jae-soon were there as well. Kim Gye-won survived the shooting.

So putting a chief presidential secretary in that room isn’t an invention. What changed is his role. Kim Gye-won never stepped out just before the shooting to summon someone like Baek Kitae. The drama uses the fictional Cheon Seok-jung to open a path for Kitae into the events of October 26.

Which Was Stronger, the KCIA or the Security Command?

The drama presents the KCIA as a formidable organization. It genuinely was. But it had one decisive weakness: it couldn’t move troops directly. With the president dead and martial law declared, whoever could command military forces held the far stronger position. That’s exactly why, in the show, Kitae works to bring the army chief of staff onto his side.

In real history, Chun Doo-hwan’s faction moved first against army chief of staff Chung Seung-hwa during the December 12 coup, arresting him before anything else. Chung was later tortured during the Security Command’s interrogation.

Who Is Cheon Seok-jung Based On?

It’s hard to read Cheon Seok-jung as a copy of any one real figure. By title, he recalls Kim Gye-won, who actually held the chief presidential secretary post in 1979. The political weight of having been with Park Chung Hee since the 1961 coup brings someone like Kim Jong-pil to mind.

But the man most often described as the real number two in Park’s final years was security chief Cha Ji-chul. And the drama already has a far more direct stand-in for Cha in the form of Gwak.

Cheon Seok-jung looks less like a transplanted historical figure than a fictional composite, assembled from pieces of several powerful men of the Park era.

What If Director Cho Had Gone to the KCIA Instead?

In the drama, Kitae sends Cho to Army Headquarters and takes the KCIA himself. The scene inverts what many Koreans consider the most agonizing moment in the real history.

After shooting the president, Kim Jae-gyu set out for KCIA headquarters in Namsan with army chief of staff Chung Seung-hwa in his car. Chung insisted on going to Army Headquarters instead, the destination changed, and that is what led to Kim Jae-gyu’s arrest.

One historical what-if has circulated in Korea ever since. What if Kim Jae-gyu had gone to his own stronghold at the KCIA rather than Army Headquarters? His capture is what allowed Chun Doo-hwan, then only a major general, to climb all the way to the presidency. Whether anything would truly have been better under Kim Jae-gyu is another question entirely.

Which is what gives the scene its weight. A decision Kim Jae-gyu made himself in history becomes, in the drama, a trap laid by Baek Kitae.

A Parade of Villains

This is a contest between genuine villains. The KCIA is one, and Hwang Daesik — standing where Chun Doo-hwan stood — is another. The only character you can really warm to is Oh Ye-jin. I’m curious what happens to Korea’s first female prosecutor from here.

Anyone who knows Korean history can roughly guess where Baek Kihyun ends up. This is the history where the Security Command wins.

Will Jang Geonyoung’s Revenge Succeed?

He’s the one I’m most curious about. Does he become a hero or a villain? In Season 1, he attached himself to the chief presidential secretary to bring Baek Kitae down. In Season 2, he’s joined the Joint Investigation Headquarters. Each time, he chooses the stronger power. And this time, the side he’s chosen is the one that wins in real history.

Basic Info

Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Jang Hye-jin, Heo Jung-do
Episodes: 6
Release: September 9, 2026, with two episodes weekly through September 23, on Disney+ and Hulu

Before you watch Season 2, catch up on the story and the history behind it.

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

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Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Baek Ki-tae’s Death—and the Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

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Three central characters from Made in Korea Season 2 against a dark blue political-thriller background

Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Baek Kitae has reached the top. Jang Geonyoung is back. But to understand what Season 2 is really setting up, you need to know one date, two powerful institutions — and the military strongman waiting in Korea’s future.

Watch the Made in Korea Season 2 trailer without any knowledge of modern Korean history and it looks fairly simple. Baek Kitae has grown more powerful. Jang Geonyoung is back. Baek Kihyun has become a military officer with real authority. The three of them are aiming at each other again.

Then you recognize one date in the trailer, and the whole thing changes.

October 26, 1979. The day of the most consequential political assassination in modern Korean history. The president from Season 1 is killed by the director of the KCIA, and the country falls into a political vacuum. Season 2 drops Baek Kitae right into the middle of it.

To follow Season 2 properly, read these two first:

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

The short version: Baek Kitae was a KCIA officer running a drug operation on the side, and prosecutor Jang Geonyoung spent Season 1 chasing him. By the finale, Kitae had been promoted and Geonyoung had been framed as a corrupt prosecutor and destroyed. Baek Kihyun is Kitae’s younger brother, a military officer who — unlike his brother — tries to hold onto his principles.

What the Trailer Tells Us

In Season 1, Baek Kitae rose to branch chief of the KCIA’s Busan office. Nine years later in Season 2, he’s a deputy director of the agency, and by the end of the trailer he’s been named acting director.

Jang Geonyoung returns too, but not as a prosecutor. This time he joins the Joint Investigation Headquarters as a special advisor — which means he’s inside the Defense Security Command. Baek Kihyun is a lieutenant colonel there as well. On the surface, Geonyoung and Kihyun are now on the same side.

A new character appears: Hwang Daesik, the commander of the Defense Security Command. In the trailer, Baek Kitae says he’ll eliminate the man himself. In actual history, the Defense Security Command was led by Chun Doo-hwan, who would seize control of the military less than two months later and eventually become president — so Kitae probably doesn’t get to eliminate him.

Signs of the brothers turning on each other run throughout. In one shot, a figure who looks like Kihyun from behind is interrogating Cheon Seok-jung — the younger brother taking apart his older brother’s protection. In another, Kihyun is interrogating Kitae directly.

Even this much makes the structure clear. Season 1 was Baek Kitae versus Jang Geonyoung. Season 2 layers on the KCIA versus the military, Baek Kitae versus both Geonyoung and his own brother, and a dying power against a rising one.

What Was the KCIA?

International viewers need this part explained.

By name, the KCIA looks like an intelligence agency along the lines of the American CIA. In practice it was far stronger. It investigated domestic political and security cases directly, not just intelligence on North Korea, and it could coordinate the intelligence activities of other government bodies. Under Park Chung Hee’s government, it was notorious for surveilling, arresting, and torturing his political opponents.

In the Korea of that era, the KCIA wasn’t simply an intelligence service. It was one of the strongest pillars holding up a dictatorship. That’s exactly why, in Season 1, Baek Kitae could bug a prosecutor’s office and threaten to turn the man’s sister into a North Korean spy.

October 26 — The Day a KCIA Director Shot the President

On October 26, 1979, KCIA director Kim Jae-gyu shot and killed President Park Chung Hee. The presidential security chief, who was in the room, died there too.

Park had ruled Korea since the 1961 military coup and held power as president for nearly eighteen years. The core institution propping up that government was the KCIA. And in the end, the man who killed him was the KCIA’s own director.

This is what makes Season 2 work. Baek Kitae has spent his whole life climbing toward greater power, and he finally arrives near the summit of the KCIA. At that exact moment, the institution he climbed starts to collapse. He reaches the top of the mountain just as the mountain begins to shake.

The Position He Inherits Isn’t a Promotion

One thing needs saying here. Baek Kitae becoming acting director of the KCIA looks like success on the surface. It’s the opposite.

The man who killed the president was the KCIA’s director. So would any government trust the person who inherits that chair? Belonging to the same agency is enough to make him a suspect. Kitae arrives at the position he wanted his entire life, and the position is already a bomb.

In one sense the answer looks predetermined. But I doubt this show intends to end things that easily.

The Security Command and the Joint Investigation Headquarters

Season 2’s second power center enters here. The Defense Security Command was a military intelligence agency handling intelligence and security within the Korean armed forces. A president who had taken power in a coup was intensely interested in monitoring and controlling the military, and the Security Command was the core of that effort. After the president’s assassination, a Joint Investigation Headquarters was formed to investigate the case. This is the body Jang Geonyoung joins.

The relationship between the two is what matters. The Joint Investigation Headquarters was created under Martial Law Command after the assassination. But its chief was Chun Doo-hwan, who was also commander of the Defense Security Command. That gave the Security Command extraordinary influence over the investigation. Joining it meant standing with the Security Command.

And the organization was nothing like what its name suggests. “Investigation headquarters” sounds like a team of detectives. In reality it could direct the military, the police, the prosecution, and the KCIA. More importantly, because the body that created it was a military organization, it could mobilize actual troops when it wanted to. An organization holding both investigative authority and military force was running the investigation into a presidential assassination.

Which is what makes Geonyoung’s new position meaningful. He has attached himself to a rising power in order to strike at a dying one. It’s the same choice he made in Season 1, when he allied with the chief presidential secretary to bring down Baek Kitae. The difference is that the power he’s chosen this time is stronger and more brutal.

Is Hwang Daesik Supposed to Be Chun Doo-hwan?

This is what makes the character interesting. There’s no official statement that Hwang Daesik is Chun Doo-hwan. But the details overlap too heavily. 1979. Commander of the Defense Security Command. Military power expanding rapidly after October 26. A new faction in conflict with the KCIA. No Korean viewer is going to struggle to make the connection.

There’s a film called 12.12: The Day, about the coup that followed. It renamed Chun Doo-hwan as Chun Doo-gwang — close enough that the name alone tells you who it is. Made in Korea gives its character a completely different name. Hwang Daesik.

That difference says something about the show’s approach. Made in Korea isn’t trying to recreate history. It’s putting entirely fictional characters inside real events so it can move them freely. Season 1 worked the same way. The Yodogo hijacking was real. Baek Kitae was never on that plane.

In Season 2, October 26 happens as it happened. But Baek Kitae and Hwang Daesik are inside it. So the question isn’t “will Park Chung Hee die?” We already know the answer. The real question is what the show will invent for Baek Kitae to have done inside that history.

The Weight of the Name Chun Doo-hwan

International readers may not know this name. Koreans need no introduction to it.

Less than two months after Park Chung Hee’s death, on December 12, 1979, Chun Doo-hwan launched a military mutiny and seized control of the armed forces. He expanded that power and became president in 1980. In the process, the new military leadership put down citizens in Gwangju who were demanding democracy, and many of them died.

There’s a comparison that has circulated in Korea for a long time. A house is robbed, and the man who arrives to investigate the robbery strips the house of everything and installs himself as its owner. It describes what happened when the October 26 investigation became the pretext for taking the Joint Investigation Headquarters, and then the country.

Koreans hold a divided assessment of Park Chung Hee, weighing his accomplishments against his abuses. On Chun Doo-hwan, most have settled on something simpler: he should never have happened. That difference is what gives Season 2 its weight.

The end of Park’s dictatorship did not mean democracy arrived. Another military dictatorship was already at the door.

Korean Viewers Already Know How It Ends

This is the biggest gap between international and Korean audiences.

The characters don’t know their future. Baek Kitae is climbing toward the top. Jang Geonyoung is trying to destroy him. Baek Kihyun is deciding which side to stand on. Hwang Daesik is reaching for new power.

Korean viewers know more than any of them. After October 26, the balance of power shifted sharply. The Joint Investigation Headquarters, led by Security Command chief Chun Doo-hwan, effectively took control of the country’s intelligence and investigative apparatus. The KCIA was later reorganized and renamed the Agency for National Security Planning in 1981. Historically, the Security Command wins.

So what to watch for in Season 2 isn’t who wins. It’s whether the show follows history. Does the Security Command prevail as it did in reality, or does Jang Geonyoung? Stray too far from the record and Korean viewers may turn on it. How the show holds that balance will decide whether this season works.

Baek Kitae Is Still Talking About Patriotism

One thing hasn’t changed in nine years.

In Season 1, he called it patriotism to manufacture meth in Korea and sell it to Japan. Japanese people get addicted, foreign currency comes into Korea, therefore it serves the country. In the Season 2 trailer, he says it again: “I was being patriotic.”

The Baek Kitae of 1970 used patriotism to justify drugs. The Baek Kitae of 1979 says the same thing from the center of state power. Only the scale has changed.

The Real Question of Season 2

Baek Kitae won Season 1 because he understood how power moved better than Jang Geonyoung did. Geonyoung believed in the law. Kitae found the people who move the law.

But in 1979, the people who moved the law start collapsing themselves. The president dies. The KCIA’s power wavers. A new military faction emerges.

So Season 2’s question changes. When even the people who move power disappear, who does Baek Kitae choose next? That’s probably the most interesting fight this season has to offer.

Video: Made in Korea Season 2 Official Trailer / Source: Disney+ (YouTube)

Basic Info

Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Jang Hye-jin, Heo Jung-do
Episodes: 6
Release: September 9, 2026, with two episodes weekly through September 23, on Disney+ and Hulu

Before you watch Season 2, catch up on the story and the history behind it.

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained

The ensemble cast of Made in Korea Season 1 framed by fire, crowds, and a dark city street
Illustration: Made in Korea Season 1 / KwaveInsider

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Five Made in Korea characters surrounded by cigarette smoke and archival images of 1970s Seoul
Illustration: The Real History Behind Made in Korea Season 1 / KwaveInsider

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1-2: What Really Happened on October 26

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Baek Ki-tae’s Death—and the Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

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Mousetrap: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

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Should You Watch The East Palace? A Korean Viewer’s Take

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Agent Kim Reactivated: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

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A Shop for Killers Season 1: What You Need to Know Before Season 2

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Illustration: A Shop for Killers Season 1: What You Need to Know Before Season 2 / KwaveInsider

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The ensemble cast of Made in Korea Season 1 framed by fire, crowds, and a dark city street

Made in Korea Season 1: Full Story and Ending Explained — Before Season 2

by KwaveInsider, posted in K-Drama & Film

Plenty of handsome men. Almost no good ones. Revisiting the six episodes where Baek Kitae and Jang Geonyoung fought over money, power, and justice. Full spoilers.

Made in Korea lines up some of the most recognizable leading men in Korean film and television. Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Park Yong-woo, Jung Sung-il. The screen looks great. The people they’re playing don’t.

The KCIA, the prosecutor’s office, the presidential office, gangsters, Japanese yakuza — nearly everyone here crosses a line for money or power. Even the ones talking about justice will threaten and deal when they need to.

At the center are Baek Kitae (also written Baek Ki-tae) and Jang Geonyoung (also written Jang Geon-young). One uses a state agency to build his own business and climb higher. The other chases him to the end. Across six episodes, they fight with their heads and their fists, and eventually drag in family, organizations, and politics too.

Season 2 arrives September 9. Before it does, here’s exactly what happened in Season 1.

It Starts With a Hijacking

1970. A Japanese businessman named Matsuda boards a flight to Fukuoka. His briefcase holds drugs meant for the Ikeda yakuza organization. Then the plane is hijacked by a radical Japanese leftist group demanding to be flown to North Korea.

Matsuda stays strangely calm through all of it. He gets some passengers released and uses a young passenger to smuggle information out. The South Korean government uses that information to divert the plane to Korea. In the end, Matsuda subdues the hijackers himself. It’s far too practiced for an ordinary businessman.

The moment he walks back into the KCIA’s Busan branch, we learn who he actually is. His workplace is full of torture and beatings, blood spattering in every direction. His real name is Baek Kitae, a section chief at the Busan branch of the KCIA.

The KCIA was created in 1961, shortly after the military coup that brought Park Chung Hee’s faction to power. Officially it was an intelligence and counterespionage agency, but it became notorious for surveillance, torture, and the fabrication of espionage cases against political opponents and ordinary citizens.

The problem is that Baek Kitae is a KCIA officer and a partner in the yakuza drug trade at the same time. He works for the state and uses the state’s power for his own business.

Jang Geonyoung Finds Baek Kitae

Jang Geonyoung, a prosecutor in the Busan District Prosecutor’s Office, is tracking the methamphetamine spreading through the city. He’s the opposite of Kitae by temperament. He keeps getting passed over for promotion but doesn’t read his superiors’ faces, and once a case smells wrong, he holds on no matter who’s on the other end.

What he’s chasing is Busan’s biggest drug organization, run by a boss named Jo. Jo trades meth with the Japanese yakuza and has his hands in every lucrative business in the city. In a photo Geonyoung has obtained, Jo is bowing deferentially — to Baek Kitae.

Why is a KCIA section chief standing with a drug organization? Geonyoung starts digging, and a sting operation lands him Kang, the organization’s second-in-command.

Kitae doesn’t sit still either. He walks into Geonyoung’s office himself, goes through his files, and plants a listening device. Then he identifies himself as KCIA and warns Geonyoung to drop the case. Geonyoung doesn’t stop, and Kang gives up the details of an upcoming deal.

Geonyoung moves to raid the hotel where Jo is meeting the yakuza — but the KCIA gets there first. His operation is neutralized, and both Jo and Kang end up in KCIA hands. Jo is eliminated. Kang is kept alive. The reason is simple. Kitae is taking the drug business for himself.

Baek Kitae Goes Into the Drug Business Himself

From here, Kitae stops being an intelligence officer skimming money from the shadows. He becomes an operator. He has Kang rebuild the organization, finds a pharmacist, and starts manufacturing. The lab is disguised as a pig farm so the smell of production is buried under the smell of livestock.

His partner in Japan is Ikeda Yuji, a Korean-Japanese man and a key figure in the Ikeda organization. Kitae proposes taking over the business Jo used to run. He doesn’t think of it as a crime. Made in Korea, sold in Japan, foreign currency coming home — he frames it as patriotism. His sister eventually ends up managing the money.

Around this time, Bae Geumji (also written Bae Geum-ji) enters the story. She’s the madam of an upscale kisaeng house frequented by the political and business elite, and she knows the private entanglements of the men around the president. The rumor alone that she keeps a notebook listing who she’s slept with is enough to make powerful men nervous — and the biggest leverage of all is what she knows about who fathered her son.

She recognizes Kitae’s ambition immediately. There’s no future under Hwang Gukpyeong (also written Hwang Guk-pyeong), she tells him; if he wants to go higher, she’ll help.

Kitae chooses power instead. Geumji knows about his deal with Ikeda Yuji, and when she tells him the notebook never existed at all, she becomes someone he can no longer leave alive. Kitae moves on her with KCIA agents and kills her himself.

Jang Geonyoung Sees How Deep It Goes

Geonyoung doesn’t stop investigating either. He traces who took over the drug business after Jo disappeared, and lands on Baek Kitae. The two meet head-on.

Kitae says he joined the KCIA out of patriotism. Geonyoung laughs at him. Is flooding Japan with Korean-made meth patriotism too?

So Kitae brings up Geonyoung’s family. He mentions the guitar club Geonyoung’s sister attends, and intelligence linking it to North Korea. The KCIA of this era manufactured spies out of nothing whenever it wanted, which makes this an enormous threat. Geonyoung doesn’t back down — he asks whether the KCIA investigating and threatening a prosecutor’s family counts as patriotism. From this point their fight stops being an investigation. It becomes a war between two men who know each other’s weak points.

Baek Kitae Removes His Own Boss

As the drug operation grows, Busan branch chief Hwang Gukpyeong catches on. Hwang is a corrupt man himself. He’d been taking money from Jo’s organization and passing it up to the presidential security chief, the man who effectively controls the KCIA from beside the president. And he’d been skimming a substantial amount for himself along the way.

With a gun pointed at him, Kitae grovels and makes an offer: a large payment every month, in exchange for not being blocked. At the same time, he’s reaching past Hwang toward the far greater power above him — the presidential security chief himself.

Hwang realizes how dangerous Kitae has become and moves to eliminate him. He orders Section Chief Pyo, Kitae’s colleague, to kill him on the boat back from the deal with Ikeda Yuji in Japan. But Kitae is a step ahead. He never gets off the boat. Pyo disembarks alone, hands Hwang the money, and reports that Kitae is dead.

Hwang heads to the temple where he keeps his slush fund hidden. Waiting for him in the dark, beside the safe, is Kitae. He shoots Hwang without hesitation.

Geonyoung follows him all the way there. He finds Hwang’s body and is certain Baek Kitae is the killer — but he has no evidence. Kitae takes the money and burns the temple down.

The Fight Moves Up to the Blue House

With Hwang dead, Geonyoung arrests Section Chief Pyo. He even has photographs of the drug deal in Japan. It looks like he can finally take Baek Kitae down. Then the investigation is blocked from above. Behind Kitae stands the presidential security chief — and behind him, the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence and the Korean equivalent of the White House.

Kitae hands over the money taken from Hwang, along with Bae Geumji’s notebook — her son had been the security chief’s child. Then he makes a bigger offer: he will raise 70 billion won for the presidential election. The drug business is no longer personal profit. It’s political funding. To Kitae, the state isn’t something to protect. It’s his largest business partner.

On the other side of the security chief is the chief presidential secretary. The two men hold each other in check, and Geonyoung starts using their rivalry. He’s realized that no prosecutor takes down Baek Kitae alone.

The War Reaches Their Families

Kitae has a weakness too. His family. His younger brother Baek Kihyun (also written Baek Ki-hyun) graduated at the top of his class from the Korea Military Academy — an elite officer who, unlike his brother, tries to hold onto his principles. When an incident puts his military career at risk, Geonyoung approaches him. For Kitae, this is crossing a line.

So Kitae abducts Geonyoung. He drags Geonyoung’s sister into KCIA custody too, and constructs a story in which she managed funds for an organization tied to North Korea. The fabricated evidence and false statements are already prepared. This was routine work for the KCIA in the 1970s.

Geonyoung wavers for the first time. He can take it himself, but watching his sister be destroyed is another matter. The prosecutor’s office and the chief presidential secretary eventually intervene, and both of them are released.

By now, both men understand the same thing. This ends only when one of them is completely destroyed.

Jang Geonyoung Prepares His Last Counterattack

Geonyoung changes his approach. He allies with the chief presidential secretary, the security chief’s rival, and tries to pry Kitae and the security chief apart. Section Chief Pyo appears to turn on Kitae as well. Geonyoung tells Pyo there is likely a recording of Kitae handing money to the security chief.

Kang, who had been in hiding, is caught again. He confesses that Baek Kitae started the drug operation. Kitae’s sister is arrested. Prosecutors raid the KCIA’s Busan branch itself. And when Baek Kitae returns from overseas, he’s arrested too. Everything is breaking Geonyoung’s way.

Who Actually Wins?

All of it was Kitae’s plan. He had turned Geonyoung’s own right-hand investigator. He knew every move Geonyoung would make.

Pyo behaved as though he’d crossed to Geonyoung’s side, but in the end he does the math again. He gets hold of the recording and listens to it — and that’s what decides everything. What’s on the tape isn’t the security chief. It’s evidence against the chief presidential secretary. Pyo delivers it to the security chief.

Kang never becomes Geonyoung’s witness either. He takes drugs hidden in the interrogation room by the turned investigator and dies. The same investigator tucks a forged suicide note into the dying man’s pocket, claiming Geonyoung took money to protect the drug organization. A large sum of foreign currency turns up in Geonyoung’s safe. All of it is manufactured — but in that era, what mattered wasn’t the truth. It was who could manufacture evidence.

The Villain, and the Era, Win

Compromised by the security chief, the chief presidential secretary orders the prosecution to discard Geonyoung. The next day, Jang Geonyoung is reported as a corrupt prosecutor who shielded a drug organization. The man who spent everything trying to catch Baek Kitae becomes the criminal instead. He laughs, hollowed out, as he’s led away in front of reporters.

Kitae walks out of every trap. The lab keeps running, drugs keep moving to the Ikeda organization, and the money keeps flowing up to the security chief. And Kitae rises into the very position Hwang Gukpyeong once held. The section chief takes the chair of the boss he murdered. Sitting at that desk with a cigar, he looks a great deal like the security chief.

What Baek Kitae wanted is clear by now. Not money. The power money can buy.

The Season 1 Ending — The Villain Won

Taken on its own, Season 1’s ending is unambiguous. Baek Kitae won. Jang Geonyoung uncovered nearly all of his crimes and proved none of them, and was manufactured into a corrupt prosecutor instead. Kitae killed people, made drugs, fabricated evidence, and played the power struggle between the KCIA and the Blue House. And he got promoted.

Here’s the cruel part. Kitae didn’t survive because he got lucky. He simply understood how this era worked far better than Geonyoung did. Geonyoung believed in the law. Kitae found the people who move the law. So the first fight goes to Baek Kitae.

But Jang Geonyoung isn’t finished. And there’s one more reason this story doesn’t end here. The early 1970s, where Season 1 takes place, was not this country’s last dark chapter.

Korean viewers already know what comes after the president in this story. Another military strongman is waiting in the next chapter of history — and he would prove even more brutal. A true happy ending is hard to imagine here. South Korea still had two more presidents with military backgrounds to go before civilian government finally arrived.

Who to Remember Before Season 2

Baek Kitae — Season 1’s winner. Uses KCIA power to grow a drug operation and ends up in his dead boss’s chair.

Jang Geonyoung — Season 1’s loser. Comes close to catching Kitae, then falls to fabricated evidence and is branded a corrupt prosecutor.

The presidential security chief — Kitae’s most powerful backer. Holds the real power around the president, and needs Kitae’s money.

The chief presidential secretary — The security chief’s rival, and the man Geonyoung allied with to take down Kitae and his backer.

Ikeda Yuji — Kitae’s Japanese partner, looking to grow the drug business well beyond Korea and Japan.

Baek Kihyun — Kitae’s younger brother. Sees the state and the military differently than his brother does, and witnesses Kitae’s drug deal firsthand in Vietnam.

By the end of Season 1, Jang Geonyoung and Baek Kitae have already gone after each other’s families. There isn’t much left between them. On September 9, that fight starts again.

The harder part is here. Why the KCIA could drag away a prosecutor at will, why selling Korean-made meth to Japan gets called “patriotism,” and what Made in Korea actually took from the real history of 1970s Korea:
Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Video: Made in Korea Season 2 Official Trailer / Source: Disney+ (YouTube)

Basic Info

Director: Woo Min-ho
Writers: Park Eun-gyo, Park Joon-suk
Cast: Hyun Bin, Jung Woo-sung, Woo Do-hwan, Park Yong-woo, Cho Yeo-jeong
Episodes: 6
Release: December 24, 2025 – January 14, 2026, on Disney+ and Hulu
Season 2: September 9, 2026, with two episodes weekly through September 23

Season 2, episode by episode.

Episodes 1-2: What Really Happened on October 26

Soldiers firing in heavy rain surrounded by key scenes from Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2
Illustration: Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 1–2 / KwaveInsider

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 3-4: The Enemy of My Enemy—and the Beginning of the End

Made in Korea Season 2: What Happens to Hwang Dae-sik? The Real History Behind His Rise and Fall

Made in Korea Season 2 Episodes 5–6: Baek Ki-tae’s Death—and the Meaning of the Ending

Made in Korea Season 2: Full Story From Beginning to End

Made in Korea Season 2: Ending Explained and Drama Analysis

Before you watch Season 2, the real history behind the drama and what the trailer sets up.

Made in Korea: Is It a True Story? The Real History Behind Season 1

Five Made in Korea characters surrounded by cigarette smoke and archival images of 1970s Seoul
Illustration: The Real History Behind Made in Korea Season 1 / KwaveInsider

Made in Korea Season 2: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

Three central characters from Made in Korea Season 2 against a dark blue political-thriller background
Illustration: Made in Korea Season 2 / KwaveInsider

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Three men framed by a sweeping mouse silhouette, with police cars glowing on a dark road
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Illustrated thumbnail showing four dramatic scenes from the Netflix Korean drama The East Palace
Illustration: The East Palace / KwaveInsider

Agent Kim Reactivated: What You Need to Know Before You Watch

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Illustration: Netflix Korean Drama Agent Kim Reactivated / KwaveInsider

A Shop for Killers Season 1: What You Need to Know Before Season 2

Illustrated thumbnail showing Jung Jin-man and Jung Ji-an from A Shop for Killers amid explosions, drones, and gunfire.
Illustration: A Shop for Killers Season 1: What You Need to Know Before Season 2 / KwaveInsider

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.