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.

Geumgwan (Gold Crown), 1st Class

 * Myung-whun Chung, 1996
 * Shin Sang-ok, 2006
 * Nam June Paik, 2007
 * Yu Hyun-mok, 2009
 * Park Wan-suh, 2011
 * Youn Yuh-jung, 2021
 * Song Hae, 2022 (posthumous)
 * Lee Jung-jae, 2022
 * Hwang Dong-hyuk, 2022
 * Sumi Jo, 2023

Eungwan (Silver Crown), 2nd Class

 * Martina Deuchler, 1995
 * Kim Duk-soo, 2007
 * Lee Mi-ja, 2009
 * Kun-Woo Paik, 2010
 * Lee Soo-man, 2011
 * Shin Young-kyun, 2011
 * Ha Chun-hwa, 2011
 * Kim Ki-duk, 2012
 * Kim Soo-hyun, 2012
 * Kim Ku-lim, 2017
 * Cho Yong-pil, 2013
 * Gu Bong-seo, 2013
 * Ahn Sung-ki, 2013
 * Patti Kim, 2013
 * Park Jung-ran, 2014
 * Song Hae, 2014
 * Choi Bul-am, 2014
 * Lee Soon-jae, 2018
 * Kim Min-ki, 2018
 * Bong Joon-ho, 2019
 * Kim Hye-ja, 2019
 * Yang Hee-eun, 2019
 * Ryu Je-dong, 2020
 * Go Doo-shim, 2020
 * Byun Hee-bong, 2020
 * Yoon Hang-gi, 2020
 * Han Cheol-hee, 2021
 * Lee Jang-hee, 2021
 * Lee Choon-yeon, 2021
 * Park Chan-wook, 2022
 * Kang Soo-yeon, 2022

Bogwan (Precious Crown), 3rd Class

 * Hai-Kyung Suh, 1980
 * Yanagi Sōetsu, 1984
 * Park Chan-wook, 2004
 * Park Jeong-ja, 2007
 * Shin Goo, 2010
 * Go Eun-jung, 2010
 * Im Hee-chun, 2010
 * Shin Jung-hyeon, 2011
 * Oh Seung-ryong, 2011
 * Yoo Ho, 2011
 * Lee Ho-jae, 2011
 * Na Moon-hee, 2012
 * Song Chang-sik, 2012
 * Choi Eun-hee, 2014
 * Kim Su-il, 2014
 * Myung Kook-hwan, 2014
 * Kadir Topbaş, 2014
 * Kim Young-ok, 2018
 * Im Ha-ryong, 2020
 * Song Jae-ho, 2021
 * Park In-hwan, 2021
 * Noh Hee-gyeong, 2021
 * Song Kang-ho, 2022
 * Park Jin-sook, 2022
 * Huh Young-man, 2022

Okgwan (Jeweled Crown), 4th Class

 * Kang Soo-yeon, 1987
 * 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
 * Anthony Graham Teague, 2008
 * Park Jae-sang (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: Kim Nam-joon (RM), Kim Seok-jin (Jin), Min Yoon-gi (Suga), Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), Park Ji-min (Jimin), Kim Tae-hyung (V) and Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook)

Class unknown

 * Samuel Martin, 1994