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China and Japan were unruffled Thursday by a revelation that has shaken Korea¡¯s national confidence to the core -- the discovery of parasite eggs in some domestic brands of the ultimate Korean side-dish kimchi.
In case of China, the state-controlled Chinanews.com current affairs site summed up Korean media coverage in a three-line brief, reporting that the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) admitted the find after earlier detecting parasites in Chinese kimchi brands.
However, that was partly because in China the damage was already done. That culminated in a ban of some Korean kimchi products, pepper paste and seasonings despite the fact that China does not officially import them. As a result, Chinese grocery stores had already stopped selling Korean-made kimchi and seasonings so Thursday¡¯s announcement had little effect.
China's food safety watchdog had urged the KFDA to hold off announcing the parasite find in Chinese brands. When Korea demurred, Beijing retaliated with media stories about parasites in Korean brands and threats of tough inspections of Korean cosmetics.
Japan, where kimchi does not make headline news in and of itself, has been an amused onlooker.
The country¡¯s leading newspapers reported the scandal as a trade conflict between Korea and China in their Wednesday issues. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun¡¯s article was titled, ¡°Conflicts between China and Korea Over Kimchi,¡± and ¡°China and Korea Pitted Against Each Other Over Kimchi, as Parasite Eggs Found,¡± was the title of the Mainichi Shimbun story. The Yomiuri Shimbun headlined, ¡°China and Korea at Kimchi War; Parasite Eggs Found in Chinese Kimchi.¡±
By Thursday the story was dead, despite the fact that kimchi products of both Korean and Japanese provenance sell briskly in the country. Perhaps now the Korean government has admitted that parasite eggs have been found in kimchi from the country that invented the otherwise healthful delicacy, it will merit another headline.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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