Politics of food

The Lee Myung-bak government has expended huge amounts of energy in promoting Korean cuisine internationally. First lady Kim Yoon-ok has spearheaded the efforts, seen in the top photo on CNN in 2009 promoting some of Korea’s signature dishes. (Photo : The Korea Times)

Lawmakers halt MB’s ‘hansik’ globalization project

Bureaucratic ambitions to foster “hansik,’’ or traditional Korean food, as the newest star in global cuisine appears to be on hold as lawmakers vow to look into allegations that the existing government investment has been wasted and abused.

Representatives of the governing Saenuri Party and opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) have agreed on the need to investigate how the 76.9 billion won (about $72.3 million) budget has been used amid increasing criticism of bad management and poor results.

The two parties will jointly submit a bill to begin the probe during the National Assembly’s extraordinary session later this month. Should the investigation expose any irregularities or wrongdoings, the case will be taken to prosecutors, according to the parties.

State agencies and public organizations to be targeted by the investigation include the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation, the Korean Food Foundation and the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The hansik globalization project received ambitious backing from the Lee Myung-bak government from 2008, with first lady Kim Yoon-ok emerging as the spokeswoman and speechifying about how Korea should have an internationally transcendent food to call its own as Japan has with sushi and Italy with pasta.

The government’s plan was to help make hansik one of the world’s top cuisines by 2017, although it was never clear how foods of different countries could be ranked. Depending on the results of the National Assembly action, that might never be clarified.

Kim stood at the forefront of the efforts as honorary chairwoman of the hansik globalization committee. The committee’s opening ceremony was held in May 2009 with Kim, several ministers, vice ministers, presidential secretaries and influential politicians in attendance, reflecting the President’s ambition regarding the project.

She appeared on CNN and other international media outlets to show how to cook Korean food and took part in various promotional campaigns. The government spent 5 billion won in 2011 opening a flagship Korean food restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, New York, which closed last year amid snowballing debt.

“The (Korean food) globalization project has been pushed forward without a fine-tuned roadmap or action plan, which caused the government’s spending spree to go on without any achievements,” said lawmaker Kim Jae-won of the ruling Saenuri Party.

“The government’s work focused excessively on public relations activities, while it paid little attention to forming strategies that will fundamentally reinforce the international competitiveness of Korean food.”

Nearly 49 percent of the budget assigned to the Korean Food Foundation between 2010 and 2011 was used for public relations, the lawmaker said.

As of late 2007, there were an estimated 10,000 Korean restaurants overseas, according to the food and agriculture ministry.

The project aimed at adding 1,000 new restaurants each year to have 20,000 in operation worldwide by 2017. However the money-consuming maneuver ended up adding only 1,000 restaurants by the end of 2011, the ministry said. There are only five Korean food restaurants recognized by the renowned Michelin Guide. <The Korea Times/Park Si-soo>