That's kind of the impression I've had. I had been wondering why that, of all of the stuff coming out of Korea (Kpop, K-dramas, which do have a major underground following in this country) would be the one thing that would suddenly become a fad in the U.S.
I think attitudes in this country are changing, but very, very slowly -- it's still much easier for most people to fall back on the reflexive habit of putting just about anything (other than kung-fu movies) from Asia which catches their attention in the "those crazy Asians" box. It's a way of mentally confining people, nations, cultures which, if you were to look at them closely, might turn out to be the kind of things that you really can't confine at all (and are therefore potentially threatening).