Made in Korea: Season 1

Season overview

Made in Korea is a 2025 crime‑drama series set in 1970s South Korea. Season 1 follows Baek Kitae (also rendered as Baek Ki Tae), a KCIA operative who leads a double life as a smuggler. His ambition drives him to use the smuggling operation to consolidate power within the agency, protect his brother and generate large sums of money. As he climbs the ranks, his actions bring him into conflict with a determined prosecutor, identified in SerialZone as Jang Gun‑Young, who is described as tenacious and unwilling to be bought or reasoned with. The season portrays the rivalry between the two men, each seeking to outmaneuver the other while the stakes for both grow higher. The narrative is framed as a contest of ambition versus justice, with the backdrop of 1970s South Korean political and criminal environments. The series is classified as a crime and drama production and was released in 2025. Throughout the season, Kitae’s rise is portrayed as rapid, with his smuggling network becoming a tool for personal and institutional gain. The prosecutor’s pursuit is depicted as relentless, emphasizing a moral clash that drives the plot forward. The show explores themes of power, corruption, and the personal costs of ambition within the historical context of South Korea’s intelligence and legal systems of the 1970s.