DISGUISING CHINESE KIMCHI AS KOREAN

[Anchor Lead]

Making kimchi for winter is more expensive this year than ever because of the soaring prices of napa cabbages and spices. Perhaps that's why some restaurants disguise cheap Chinese kimchi as domestic.

[Pkg]

Crackdown officials from the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service enter a restaurant. Kimchi on the menu is labeled to be made in Korea. But vague characters above say it's source is China.

[Soundbite] "(It's not clear enough because I used a black pen.) This is not how you should mark it."

After inspecting the kitchen, the officials find the source to be clearly Chinese kimchi in the refrigerator. Domestic kimchi is nowhere to be found.

[Soundbite] (Restaurant owner(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "Domestic Kimchi is very expensive these days. We used it before."

Another restaurant in the same region. The menu says this place uses a combination of both domestic and Chinese chili pepper powder to make their kimchi. It appears as if it makes the kimchi firsthand, but it also turned out to be a trick. All of the kimchi served here was made in China. More than ten boxes of Chinese kimchi were found in the freezer. Last year, more than three thousand restaurants nationwide were caught by the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service for falsely labeling the country of origin of their products. More than 700 cases, or 23 percent, were napa cabbage kimchi. This year violations are even more rampant, as imports of Chinese kimchi have surged about 27 percent on-year due to inflation.

[Soundbite] Park No-seok(Nat’l Agricultural Products Quality Management Service) : "More places serve cheaper Chinese napa cabbage kimchi and label them as domestic."

The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service has warned of a massive crackdown on imported kimchi labeled as domestic.