Why the US makes it even harder for Korean (or any) translations

A great article here that covers the institutional fears and minsunderstandings caused by the way US publishers approach translated (or the possibility of them) works.

The article can be nutshelled (yeah, I made that word up) in this observation:

By and large, the American publishers spend most of the week in Hall 8, the
enormous exhibit space where English-language publishers hold court.

This article is also amusing because even as it discusses all the obstacles that US publishers throw up, it generally refers to these obstacles with reference to European authors and translations. A representative quote names Europe and then refers vaquely to other literary countries which reside, next to dragons, on the edges of literary maps :

To help spur more translations, government-sponsored cultural agencies in
Europe and elsewhere subsidize — or fully cover — the cost of translating books
into English.

To be fair Korea is mentioned once on the second page.

Still, it is worth pointing out that while Korea may not routinely be producing brilliant translations, may lack marketing skills for what they do translate, and might translate works that are not of optimal interest to the West, there is also quite a great deal of insularity, bordering on xenophobia, on the other side of the equation.