Kang Heon, a South Korean pop music critic and chairman of the state-run Korea Arts & Culture Education Service, has died. He was 64.
Kang died Tuesday afternoon. The cause of death has not been disclosed. A funeral altar has been set up at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital funeral hall, and the funeral procession is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.
Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young expressed condolences Wednesday in a post on X, saying he was “deeply saddened” by Kang’s sudden death.
Choi described Kang as a critic and educator who “broadened the horizons” of South Korean culture and the arts over many years and trained younger generations. He said Kang worked to develop regional arts and was dedicated to building a society where everyone can receive arts education.
“His steps have become a great milestone for our cultural and arts community,” Choi wrote. The post was written in Korean.
Born in 1962 in the southeastern port city of Busan, Kang studied Korean literature at Seoul National University and later majored in music theory at the university’s graduate school. He then worked with the independent film collective Jangsangotmae, which produced films including “Oh! Dreamland,” “Strike Evening” and “Opening the Closed School Gates.”
Kang began writing music criticism in the early 1990s and became a prolific contributor to media outlets. Lim Jin-mo, a fellow pop critic who worked alongside him for years, recalled that at the time it was said Kang was the authority on Korean pop and Lim on Western pop.
Kang also helped found cultural quarterlies and taught the history of popular music at several universities for about 20 years.
He previously served as chief executive of the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and as the fifth president of the Korean Federation of Regional Cultural Foundations. The culture ministry appointed him chairman of the arts education agency in December 2025 for a three-year term. The post is non-executive.
