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Netflix’s “Money Heist: Korea — Joint Economic Area” takes the structure of the hit Spanish crime drama and relocates its elaborate hostage plot to a speculative Korean Peninsula on the verge of reunification.
Directed by Kim Hong-sun and written by Ryu Yong-jae, the Korean adaptation was produced by BH Entertainment. Its single season consists of 12 episodes released in two batches: the first six on June 24, 2022, and the remaining episodes on Dec. 9, 2022.
A Heist in a Newly Integrated Korea
Set in early September 2026, the series imagines North and South Korea preparing to reunify and operating a Joint Economic Area. At its center is a unified Korean mint, where newly issued currency becomes the target of a 4 trillion won robbery.
The mastermind, known as the Professor, assembles a crew drawn from both sides of the divided peninsula. After the group seizes the mint, the story unfolds through the confrontation among the robbers, their hostages and a joint North-South crisis negotiation team.
Yoo Ji-tae plays the Professor, whose real name is Song Sun-ho and who is known to negotiator Seon Woo-jin as Park Sun-ho. Park Hae-soo portrays Berlin, a North Korean who survived the Kaechon prison camp, while Jeon Jong-seo plays Tokyo, who has military training.
The crew also includes Lee Won-jong as Moscow, Kim Ji-hoon as his son Denver, Jang Yoon-ju as Nairobi and Lee Hyun-woo as the hacker Rio. Kim Ji-hun and Lee Kyu-ho play Helsinki and Oslo, respectively, while Lim Ji-yeon appears as Seoul, who supports the operation from outside the mint.
Kim Yunjin leads the opposing side as Seon Woo-jin, a South Korean police inspector heading the negotiation team. Kim Sung-oh plays Cha Moo-hyuk, a captain in North Korea’s security apparatus. Among the hostages are mint director Cho Young-min, played by Park Myung-hoon; accounting employee Yoon Mi-seon, played by Lee Joo-bin; and Anne Kim, the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, played by Lee Si-woo.
A Familiar Blueprint With Korean Politics
The adaptation retains much of the original series’ heist framework and character design while using inter-Korean politics to reshape the setting. Both the criminal crew and the authorities are divided between North and South Korean members, forcing people from rival systems to work together even as they pursue competing goals.
The fictional Joint Economic Area serves as the economic centerpiece of the reunification project. Political and business figures surrounding the crisis include Kim Sang-man, Woo-jin’s former husband and a politician; Oh Jae-yoon, chairman of the Osung Group, who hopes to advance his ambitions through inter-Korean economic cooperation; and Jeon Yong-soo, a North Korean representative to economic talks.
Reports of a Korean remake emerged in June 2020, when BH Entertainment and Zium Content were said to be discussing the project with Netflix. Netflix confirmed the production that December, and the principal cast was announced the following March. Lim joined in April 2021, while Lee Hyun-woo replaced Park Jung-woo as Rio because of scheduling conflicts.
Production was temporarily suspended on July 7, 2021, under COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Netflix announced the English title, “Money Heist: Korea — Joint Economic Area,” on Jan. 17, 2022.
Global Success, Mixed Reviews
The series reached No. 1 on Netflix’s global chart for non-English television during the week of June 20-26, 2022, with 33.74 million viewing hours. It remained No. 1 the following week with 49 million hours before falling to third place with 15.63 million hours for the week of July 4-10. It also topped Netflix’s country rankings in 51 nations.
Critical reception was less uniform. Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 71% positive score from 17 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. The site’s consensus said the remake borrowed too heavily from its predecessor to surprise established fans but benefited from polished execution and a strong underlying design.
Metacritic assigned the series a score of 56 out of 100 based on six reviews, indicating mixed or average reception. Decider critic Joel Keller praised the performances of Yoo, Jeon and Kim Yunjin, arguing that they helped turn the heightened robbery drama into a broader discussion of economic inequality. He recommended the series to viewers who enjoyed the original “Money Heist.”
Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post awarded it 3.5 out of five stars, finding that its carefully constructed heist, twists and reversals succeeded as entertainment. S. Poorvaja of The Hindu wrote that the first season established its characters and setting effectively but expressed hope that future installments would take greater risks.
A Korean Story for Netflix’s International Audience
For English-speaking viewers, the series combines a familiar Netflix franchise with a distinctly Korean speculative setting. The presence of the U.S. ambassador’s daughter among the hostages adds an American connection to the crisis, but the central conflict remains rooted in the imagined political and economic consequences of Korean reunification.
Across its 12 episodes, “Money Heist: Korea — Joint Economic Area” preserves the original’s ensemble robbery and hostage-negotiation format while placing North and South Koreans on both sides of the standoff. Its two consecutive weeks atop Netflix’s non-English television chart showed the international appeal of that combination, even as critics differed over how far the remake moved beyond its Spanish source material.
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