It's Kimchi Vs. Kimuchi In South Korea's Latest Confrontation

SEOUL, South Korea - A garlic-laced concoction of pickled vegetables pungent enough to be called "a reasonable substitute for tear gas" has Koreans even angrier at Japan than they usually are.

Koreans call it kimchi, and cannot live without it. The Japanese call their version kimuchi and export it in huge quantities, pushing the real thing off the shelves of gourmet shops around the world.

"I think this `kimchi vs. kimuchi' confrontation is a matter on which our national pride depends," Kim Seong Jun, clearly in a dudgeon, wrote to the daily Korea Herald. "We should surely fight to be the winner in the pickle market worldwide."

Chang Woo Hyuk, a lover of real kimchi, said the onslaught of the ersatz version "is hurting Koreans' sensibilities."

Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945, and for decades longer had to put up with visiting Japanese who referred to Koreans contemptuously as "garlic eaters."

At least a whiff of garlic can be detected almost everywhere in Seoul - in the winding alleyways, the railroad and subway stations, even in the shopping malls.

Kimchi fumes are so penetrating that Goldstar and Samsung, the electronics giants, make refrigerators with hermetically sealed kimchi compartments to keep the smell away from other foods.

Tourists can be overwhelmed by their first taste of kimchi, so are advised to just nibble until they get used to it. The comparison with tear gas appeared in "The Lonely Planet Guide to Northeast Asia."

When kimchi found international favor in the 1980s, along with salsa and other peppery delights, Japan cranked up kimuchi exports, doing to South Korea's 174 mom-and-pop kimchi makers what it had done to U.S. auto and electronics companies.

A kimchi export conference in August in Seoul called attention to the small size and low output of South Korean kimchi factories, outdated equipment, poor quality control and failure to exploit markets abroad.

The only significant foreign market for Korean kimchi is Japan - kimuchi-land itself - where Korean residents loyal to the flavor they grew up with consume 7,000 tons of kimchi annually.

"Korean kimchi is hotter and saltier," said D.H. Chun of Yung Sung Industrial Co., a kimchi exporter. "We use more hot sauce."

South Korea exports 9,300 tons of kimchi a year, worth $34.2 million. All but about 13 percent of it is sold in Japan.

According to Japan's nonprofit Research Center for Food Supplies and Demand, kimuchi production in Japan last year was 75,195 tons and exports far outstripped those of South Korea.

In fact, Japan exports so much that most people in Southeast Asia believe kimchi is a Japanese food, said Lee Jung Ja, a Korean journalist born in Japan.

South Korea's huge corporate conglomerates are legally excluded from kimchi production and marketing, but the government is said to be considering an end to the ban because of the Japanese threat.

Kimchi is a fiery, fermented mixture of cabbage, radishes and other vegetables developed in the 17th century when hot red peppers, a key ingredient, were introduced to Korea.

Koreans pickle kimchi in earthenware jars. Preparation of the winter kimchi supply is a major family project in late autumn. Bright red peppers can be seen drying on mats in the courtyards of farmhouses, and sometimes on the thatched roofs.

Winter kimchi is hotter than summer kimchi, and there are regional variations.

Kimchi is usually hotter in the south than in the north. Coastal communities add seafood - cod-gill kimchi is one version - and sometimes pheasant is added.

However it is made, kimchi is the national dish and a source of intense pride.

"If Korean kimchi is outpaced by Japanese kimuchi in the future, it will be a great humiliation," Kim Seong Jun wrote in his letter to the editor.