Order of Cultural Merit (South Korea)
The Order of Cultural Merit is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the fields of culture and art in the interest of promoting the national culture and national development."Grades
The Order of Cultural Merit is conferred in five grades.
| Grade | Name | Ribbon |
| 1st | Geumgwan | |
| 2nd | Eungwan | |
| 3rd | Bogwan | |
| 4th | Okgwan | |
| 5th | Hwagwan | |
Recipients
Geumgwan (Gold Crown), 1st Class
- Myung-whun Chung, 1996
- Paik Nam-june, 2007
- Yu Hyeon-mok, 2009
- Park Wan-suh, 2011
Eungwan (Silver Crown), 2nd Class
- Martina Deuchler, 1995
- Kun-Woo Paik, 2010
- Kim Ki-duk, 2012
- Kim Soo-hyun, 2012
- Lee Soon-jae, 2018
- Kim Min-ki, 2018
- Bong Joon-ho, 2019
Bogwan (Precious Crown), 3rd Class
- Hai-Kyung Suh, 1980
- Yanagi Sōetsu, 1984
- Park Chan-wook, 2004
- Na Moon-hee, 2012
- Song Chang-sik, 2012
- Kadir Topbaş, 2014
- Kim Young-ok, 2018
Okgwan (Jeweled Crown), 4th Class
- Moon So-ri, 2002
- Choi Min-sik, 2004 — Choi Min-sik returned the decoration badge in 2006, protesting large cuts in support programs for the arts programs of the Korean government.
- Lee Byung-hoon, 2006
- Jeon Do-yeon, 2007
- Psy, 2012
- Lee Jung-jin, 2012
- Jo Min-su, 2012
- Song Kang-ho, 2019
Hwagwan (Flower Crown), 5th Class
- Ji-young Kim, 1998
- Bae Yong-joon, 2008
- BTS, 2018: RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook
Class unknown
- Helen Kim, 1963
- Samuel Martin, 1994
