Free Republic

Han Jae-wook, a 33-year-old office worker, said he eats lunch every weekday at restaurants near his office in Yeouido. Needless to say, he and his lunch partners consume vast quantities of kimchi, but where does it come from? “Just today while we were eating my colleagues and I were talking about how our rice and seonji (cow’s blood stew) looked like they came from China,” said Han. Han admitted that much of the kimchi he had been eating in his favorite restaurants over the years might have been imported from China. “I just presume it’s imported,” said Han. “It would...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Hot pants and miniskirts will soon be legal in South Korea. The country is in the final stages of revising an indecency law that prohibits people from wearing revealing outfits and was once enforced by ruler-wielding police during authoritarian governments in the 1970s, officials said. "The law for excessive exposure does not match our current society," said Kim Jae-kwang, an official with the Korea Legislation Research Institute. Models in underwear pose at a fashion show held to wish the South Korean national soccer team success in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, in Seoul May 17, 2006....

Koreans think that the country's best symbols are the taegeukgi, South Korea's flag; gimchi; hangeul, the Korean writing system (and the book Hunmin Jeongeum, written in 1446 to explain its invention); the mugunghwa, or Rose of Sharon, the national flower, and the Dokdo islets, according to a Gallup Korea survey of 1,509 adults over the age of 20. The survey, completed May and June this year, was commissioned at the request of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Nearly 35 percent of respondents said the taegeukgi, the national flag, is the cultural symbol that represents Korea more than any other....

China Gears Up to Avenge Korean Food Safety Warnings After revelations that freshwater fish imported from China was tainted with the carcinogenic dye malachite green and Chinese-produced kimchi contained parasites and unusually high levels of lead, Beijing appears to be getting ready to avenge its tainted honor. "Inspections have shown that Korean products contain malachite green as well, but the Korean government without notifying the Chinese government, and without a seeking consensus on the issue, simply made an announcement in the press as if Chinese products were the only products with such problems," a Chinese government official said. "If there...

Friday October 21, 06:34 PM S.Korean Watchdog Orders Destruction Of Tainted Chinese Kimchi SEOUL, Oct 21 Asia Pulse - South Korea's food safety watchdog ordered the recall and destruction of nine Chinese kimchi products on Friday after detecting parasite eggs in them. The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said the Chinese imports were found to contain the eggs of three parasites -- roundworm, hookworm and trichostrongylus orientalis. But domestic kimchi brands were found not to contain parasite eggs, the watchdog said, announcing the outcome of a test of 16 kimchi products from China and 18 domestic brands that were...

Adding to recent scares over Chinese food products, the nation's health watchdog said yesterday that it has detected parasite eggs in imported kimchi. The Korea Food and Drug Administration said the eggs were found in nine out of 16 types of Chinese kimchi for sale over the Internet, adding Korean kimchi was found to be free of them. Around 18 percent of kimchi consumed in Korea came from China last year, the KFDA said. The health authorities alleged that the eggs were laid by parasites living in human feces used as fertilizer on soil where cabbage, the main ingredient of...

A local animal feed manufacturer shipped a feed additive that may be effective in treating bird flu to Indonesia last week amid growing international concern over the spread of the virus. ``A veterinarian at an Indonesian zoo asked us to send our animal feed additive, which contains the bacteria leuconostoc citreum, a type of lactobacillus found in kimchi,’’ said Lee Jong-Dae, president of Celltech International. ``We shipped some 800 kilograms of the additive last week.’’ Lee added that if it is proven effective in treating chickens, ducks and other birds infected with bird flu virus there, the company will sign...

Amazon Review of The Kimchi Matters A Timeless Classic for the Ages, October 22, 2003 Reviewer: Justin Palmer (see more about me) from Chicago, USA Lefkovitz and his co-authors present an extensive but precise discussion of basic truths behind the "globalization hype." The authors use kimchi-the pungent fermented cabbage leaves that are a staple of the Korean diet-as their chief metaphor because it is a local, particular and, to many Americans, peculiar item in a society that is of vital regional and international importance. To turn up one's nose at the local, as in disdaining kimchi or failing to appreciate...