First thing that comes to mind when think of South Korea.

Recent survey revealed that 'K-pop' was the first thing that comes to mind when think of South Korea.

Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange(KOFICE) conducted survey of 5600 people in 14 different countries and 17% of respondents chose K-pop as image which represent Korea.
No.2 is Korean food with 10.5% and No.3 is IT with 10.4%.
IT was the first place on the same survey a year ago.

Also, 43% of respondents picked Korean food as the most popular Korean cultural content followed by music (36.4%), fashion (35.3%), movies (29.7%), drama (28.2%), games (26.9%).