A "kimchi war" is poisoning cultural relations between South Korea and China.
The sour taste to this spat being fought on South Korea and China social media sites is fueled by interpretations of a recent decision by the International Organization for Standardization about "pao cai" - the China version of kimchi and made in Sichuan Province.
Based in Geneva, the organization is an international standard-setting body consisting of representatives from various national standards organizations. It operates in 165 countries, including South Korea and China.
It recently posted new regulations for the making of Sichuan pao cai. The new rules cover the development, transportation and storage of Sichuan pao cai. Most of China's pao cai comes from Sichuan.
The trouble is South Korea kimchi is often served in China under the same Chinese name - pao cai.
To stop confusion the ISO listing says "this document does not apply to (South Korean) kimchi."
Despite this, some China news media disagreed. Global Times said the certification, which was requested by Sichuan, is "an international standard for the kimchi industry led by China."
Posts on China social media sites fanned the flames by claiming kimchi is a traditional China dish. Others allege the organizations' certification applied to kimchi - despite it stating otherwise.
China claims to own South Korea's traditional dish sparked anger in South Korea. South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said international standards for kimchi were agreed by the United Nations in 2001.
"It is inappropriate to report (the pao cai certification) without differentiating kimchi from pao cai of China's Sichuan," said the ministry in a statement.
"Its total nonsense, what a thief stealing our culture!" wrote a South Korean netizen on Naver.com, a popular web portal.
"I read a media story that China now says kimchi is theirs, and that they are making international standard for it, It's absurd. I'm worried that they might steal Hanbok and other cultural contents, not just kimchi," said another.
Some South Korea news media described the spat as China's "bid for world domination." Others said China is exercising "economic coercion" by claiming to have created kimchi.
