Korean reporters are also fond of making unfavorable comparisons between local produce and Chinese imported versions, holding up together Korean garlic and Chinese garlic and praising the bigger, plumper, and fresher Korean garlic. When I made my first visit to a farmers’ market in China, I was astonished at the wonderfully large and beautiful looking cabbages, peppers, squashes, greens, watermelons, grapes, berries, and amazing fruits and vegetables that don’t grow in Korea.

In 2005, KFDA reported at press conference that Chinese Kimchi harms health not long ago, and now the agency took the opposite stance on Chinese Kimchi. The real problem is that KFDA has not given a guarantee of fairness in its judgment. KFDA does not stick up for Korean people’s health, they rather defend the “economic cause” of food industry.

It is true that the Koreans and the Japanese have high rates of stomach cancer owing to high consumption of salted vegetables and fish. Salty foods are also linked to high blood pressure.

The Korean psyche is quite fickle. This will soon wane only to resurface in a few years…sort of like a Korean…wave.