Newly released stills from Made in Korea 2 show how nine years have warped the alliances inside the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Hyun Bin, Jung Sung-il, and Roh Jae-won used those images to explain how trust, usefulness, and survival have all changed shape among the three men now standing at the center of a hierarchy that no longer resembles the uneasy balance they left behind.
The first season of Made in Korea followed Baek Ki-tae (Hyun Bin), a man determined to turn the country itself into a machine for wealth and power, and prosecutor Jang Geon-young (Jung Woo-sung), who sacrificed everything in an effort to stop him. Their collision unfolded against the turbulence of the 1970s, drawing in KCIA colleagues, Blue House power brokers, and criminal networks as each side tried to outmaneuver the other before a monumental event reset the board.
Made in Korea 2 picks up nine years after the Season 1 finale and follows Baek Ki-tae at the peak of his influence, Jang Geon-young preparing a long-delayed counterattack, and Baek Ki-hyun (Woo Do-hwan) chasing power along a path that diverges from his older brother’s. Their ambitions spiral beyond control, opening an irreversible rift as private interests collide with institutional authority. The new chapter also tightens the focus on three figures inside the agency whose standing has been rewritten by time: Baek Ki-tae, Cheon Seok-jung (Jung Sung-il), and Pyo Hak-soo (Roh Jae-won).
In one still, Baek Ki-tae and Cheon Seok-jung stare straight ahead with opposing expressions that make their proximity feel less like partnership than calculation. Cheon Seok-jung remains the powerful Blue House chief of staff and continues to wield near-absolute influence while still occupying the No. 2 position. The arrival of Hwang Dae-shik (Heo Jung-do), who threatens even that second-place foothold, leaves him unsettled enough to reach toward Baek Ki-tae, the man who has long remained at his side. The image suggests a relationship that has not simply endured but inverted in small, dangerous ways.
Hyun Bin described that shift directly. “In Season 1, Baek Ki-tae was the one looking toward Cheon Seok-jung, but in Season 2, I felt that Cheon Seok-jung also comes to rely on Baek Ki-tae.” The comment frames Baek Ki-tae less as a subordinate waiting for instruction and more as a figure whose value has grown large enough to change the posture of the man above him. Jung Sung-il answered that idea from the opposite direction. “It doesn’t matter to Cheon Seok-jung who sits in that position. Baek Ki-tae has simply taken the seat that Hwang Guk-pyeong once occupied.” He added, “Baek Ki-tae is a card he can discard at any time if the situation becomes unfavorable.” Together, the remarks sketch a psychological contest in which closeness and disposability exist at the same time.
Pyo Hak-soo has undergone one of the most visible transformations of the nine-year gap, arriving with a changed appearance that includes a wig and glasses. After locking into a tense rivalry with Baek Ki-tae in Season 1, he now serves under the same man after Baek Ki-tae’s promotion to acting director of the KCIA. The power dynamic is no longer horizontal.
Roh Jae-won explained the new arrangement in blunt terms. “They were rivals in Season 1, but in Season 2, Baek Ki-tae is his superior. The subtle discomfort that comes from that, along with the precarious situations where he crosses that boundary, is the biggest difference.” To hold onto Pyo Hak-soo’s sharp survival instinct, he repeatedly told himself, “I have to survive this game somehow. I’m smarter than you, and my choice is the right one.” The line captures a character who may bow on paper while still hunting for an opening of his own.
Director Woo Min-ho placed even more weight on that instability, describing Pyo Hak-soo as someone who “plays a much more pivotal role in Season 2 than in Season 1” and “like a trickster ball that could bounce in any direction.” The remark turns the character into a variable rather than a fixed piece, one capable of tilting the contest among Baek Ki-tae, Cheon Seok-jung, and the wider struggle for control.
Made in Korea 2 premieres with its first two episodes on Disney+ and Hulu on September 9, with two new episodes released every Wednesday across a six-episode run.
Check out the trailer for Made in Korea 2 below:
Source: Naver
