South Korea's pop sensation Psy is a candidate for the U.S. weekly news magazine TIME's "Person of the Year 2012."

Psy whose real name is Park Jae-sang was on the list of 38 candidates along with U.S. President Barack Obama, late former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Xi Jinping, the new leader of China's ruling Communist Party, the magazine's Web site showed Tuesday.

"Korean rapper Psy's slick, wickedly satirical video 'Gangnam Style' broke all kinds of sound barriers this year, clocking more than 820 million YouTube views -- and counting," the magazine said in an article introducing the star.

"The uber-ambitious Seoul music industry watched in amazement as the eccentric 34-year-old hip-hop artist, gleefully skewering the music machine that made him, managed to go where no Korean performer had gone before. The rest of us just danced," it said.

An online poll is currently under way on the Web site to choose the Person of the Year and the result is scheduled to be announced on Dec. 14. (Yonhap News)