World music is transnational production and consumption of local musics which transcending the barriers of language, location, and culture, through emergence of 20th-century popular music as it became intensified in the 21st century. The process of globalization of world music, through development of technology and mass media, makes possible global distribution of musics of remote places which had been difficult before. This has been strengthened by the various relationships among "dimensions of global cultural flows" (Appadurai 1996), such as weakened national boundaries and migration, diaspora, and the emergence of world-wide media. The various issues in world music need interrogation in transnational production and reception of its text and the politics of translation. Previous studies of Stokes, Swedensbug, and Meintjes point out the fact that a new kind of cultural translation takes place as a world music turned global goes beyond national and cultural boundaries and that to take a close look at the mechanism of such cultural translation. This paper, while actively perceiving the various problems and discourses dealing with the world-wide globalization process of world music, will examine how it is now taking place in Korea and attempt for a cultural translation. World music in Korea had taken root among the few enthusiasts since its appearance after 2000 and is becoming more and more visible through channels such as mass media, festivals and concerts. Interestingly, this period coincides with the emergence of intercultural discourses and globalization projects of Korean culture in Korea. This makes world music in Korea much more than mere transplantation of Western hybrid popular music into a non-Western soil. This paper will look into cultural translation of world music in Korea. This paper will thus attempt to understand the multi-layered and multi-dimensional meanings of world music as important site for cultural globalization, as well as reveal the ways in which new horizons and meanings are created within the unique time-space that is Korea. This study aims mainly to examine the history of world music in Korea, while bearing in mind the character of world music, with all its various terms in globalization, discourses, and its glocal nature which calls for cultural interpretation. World music has emerged in many different forms in Korea especially, which has entered into a multi-cultural society within the last few decades. World music, as cultural product which moves trans-nationally, is bound to be multi-faceted and multi-layered in terms of experience, consumption method, and production of meaning. Therefore it is especially important to grasp what world music is in Korea, what its intentions are, and what political forces are present in its promotion. Based on field research and primary data, this study attempts to grasp the topography of Korean world music, examine its recent history, and understand the multi-faceted politics which is behind the intersection between Korea and the outside world. First, I examined Korean social, cultural, political context after the 90s, after which I examined the process of construction and character of Korean world music, based on specific case-studies, field work, and interviews with the practitioners and mediators of world music in Korea. In other words, this paper tried to explore its multi-faceted and multi-layered nature, which consists of multiple agents with multiple purposes. World music in Korea is constructed by multiple agents in different forms and structures, which, more than anything, reflects the self-interest of Koreans in connection with the need to acquire global status and asian hegemony. Having been identified as a de-territorial and de-contextualized sub-culture, it also reflects the cultural diversity and desire of present-day Koreans. Meanwhile, world music in Korea is becoming manipulated as a governance, becoming sort of a tool. On the other hand however, world music, as a practice which incorporates the possibility of disruption of West/ Non-West relationship, also provides an alternative culture for symbiosis. Furthermore, each identity may cross or blend with another in various locales, which reveals the present cultural landscape of Korean world music fraught with issues of arbitration, symbiosis, and conflicts between Korea and the outside world.