Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

The author is a professor of agricultural economics and rural development at Seoul National University and director of the Food Business Lab.

Tteokbokki, a dish made of chewy rice cakes simmered in sauce, is one of Korea's most recognizable street foods. Today, it is most commonly associated with a bright red, spicy and slightly sweet sauce made from gochujang, a fermented chili paste. But this now-familiar version is a relatively recent development, shaped by industrialization, policy shifts and changing patterns of consumption. It is also a dish that reflects broader transformations in Korea's modern food system.

The commonly cited origin of red tteokbokki dates to 1953 in Sindang-dong, where a street vendor, often identified as Ma Bok-rim, is said to have improvised a recipe by mixing black bean paste and gochujang with boiling rice cakes in a metal pot. This version later evolved into what became known as Sindang-dong instant tteokbokki, a communal dish cooked at the table that remained popular through the late 20th century.

However, few people recall eating this red version during the 1950s. At the time, gochujang-based tteokbokki was not a widely shared or standardized recipe. Instead, earlier forms of tteokbokki were quite different. A Jan. 11, 1936, edition of the Dong-A Ilbo included a "Joseon cuisine ingredient chart" that listed rice cakes, beef, mushrooms and eggs, along with soy sauce and sesame oil. Gochujang was not included. The dish was stir-fried, savory and closer in character to a side dish than to a street snack.

Recipes documented through the 1950s and early 1960s followed this pattern. Tteokbokki was typically cooked in oil, seasoned with soy sauce and valued for its nutty and salty flavor. It was not associated with spiciness, nor was it a food consumed casually in public spaces.

A turning point came in the late 1960s, when red gochujang tteokbokki began appearing near schools across the country. Unlike earlier versions, this was not a home-cooked dish but a street snack consumed by students after school, often alongside inexpensive foods such as beondegi, or silkworm pupae. What is striking is that this new form appeared almost simultaneously in multiple regions, suggesting a broader structural shift rather than a single point of origin.

One key factor was the development of mass-produced fermented sauces. In the 1950s, as reflected in a 1955 Kyunghyang Shinmun roundtable, there was a widespread desire for large food manufacturers that could produce staples such as kimchi and jang (Korean sauces) products. At the time, however, such products were not yet widely available in packaged form.

By the early 1960s, change had begun. A 1962 Chosun Ilbo advertisement for Sempio gochujang indicated that consumers could purchase factory-made products directly, although distribution remained limited. Packaged gochujang products emerged more clearly in the mid-1960s, initially developed for Korean troops stationed overseas. A 1967 advertisement for canned gochujang reflected growing demand and the early stages of commercialization.

Government policy accelerated this transformation. In 1968, as part of the Saemaul Movement, authorities promoted the " jangdokdae [fermentation space] removal campaign," encouraging households to abandon traditional fermentation jars in favor of commercially produced sauces. The policy aimed to improve hygiene, modernize urban environments and reduce the labor burden on households.

In Seoul, the campaign was implemented through direct action. The city supported the construction of sauce factories and facilitated distribution systems that made products widely available at low cost. By the early 1970s, mass-produced gochujang had become a common household item, distributed through an expanding retail network.

At the same time, government policies promoting wheat consumption led to the widespread use of wheat-based rice cakes, which were cheaper and more suitable for mass production...

Jung Ho-sub

The author is a chairman of the Korea Naval Association and a former chief of naval operations.

U.S. President Donald Trump has asked seven countries, including Korea, Japan, Britain, France and China, to deploy forces. The request calls for participation in international cooperation to secure maritime routes in response to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is a critical chokepoint through which about 20 percent of global oil and 25 percent of liquefied natural gas pass. As Iran moved to block the waterway amid a conflict involving the United States and Israel, it has become a major source of instability in global energy supply.

Despite Trump's frustration over lukewarm responses, building such cooperation is not simple. There are differing views on the legitimacy of the U.S.-Iran conflict. Many countries are concerned about being drawn into a war that is not their own. For Korea, dispatching naval forces is especially sensitive given the ongoing military standoff on the Korean Peninsula.

The operational risks in the strait are also severe. At its narrowest point, it spans only 21 nautical miles, concentrating a vast volume of maritime oil transport into a confined space. Even the detection of a single naval mine can halt traffic, and Iran is believed to have already deployed such mines.

In addition to mines, Iran has reportedly used asymmetric tactics, including drones and missiles, to selectively target vessels based on nationality, effectively enforcing a blockade. Even ships with advanced missile defense systems can suffer serious damage if saturation attacks penetrate their defenses. Participation in such operations requires accepting the possibility of both material losses and casualties.

This is why some analysts argue that Iran's most powerful weapon is not a nuclear device but its control over the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic leverage of the waterway amplifies its influence far beyond conventional military capability.

Nevertheless, beyond political debates and operational risks, a pragmatic assessment of national interests suggests that Korea should consider participating in international cooperation within feasible limits. First, the Strait of Hormuz is a vital route through which more than 60 percent of Korea's imported energy supplies pass. Securing this route is not a distant issue but a matter directly linked to national survival.

Second, participation would help Korea gain recognition as a middle power capable of contributing to international maritime order and security. No navy, including that of the United States, can guarantee the safety of global sea lanes on its own. Such security depends on international cooperation. Korea's own maritime trade routes, stretching across the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, rely on this collective framework.

Third, participation would contribute to strengthening the Korea-U.S. alliance. Trump has emphasized that allies should take greater responsibility for their own defense and contribute to global security to receive continued U.S. support. Korea has already expanded cooperation with Washington in areas such as investment and security following tariff negotiations concluded in October last year. Given North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, as well as China's maritime expansion, Seoul needs to carefully consider Washington's request.

The current conflict underscores the importance of securing maritime trade routes. Such security can be understood in three stages. First, in waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the Navy and Coast Guard must operate as an integrated national fleet to protect major ports and coastal shipping lanes.

Second, beyond national jurisdiction, the safety of routes to the Middle East and the United States depends on international maritime law and cooperation with partner countries. Korea should take a more active role in these efforts.

Third, a coordinated system for managing Korean-flagged vessels is ...

Lee Sang-ryeol

The author is a senior editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

The number of workers at small and medium-sized enterprises taking on second jobs rose from 277,000 in 2020 to 379,000 in 2025, a 37 percent increase, according to the Korea SMEs and Startups Institute. The shift followed the introduction of the 52-hour workweek. There had been little change between 2015 and 2020. While the Covid-19 pandemic may have contributed, the policy's impact cannot be overlooked. As many experts had warned, a measure intended to prevent overwork has instead pushed many workers into taking on additional jobs after hours.

As in most areas of life, there is no free lunch in the economy. Policies that appear beneficial often impose hidden costs on others.

Even as a stock market boom continues despite the ongoing Iran conflict, those without homes, particularly people preparing for marriage, face growing difficulty securing rental housing. Supply has sharply declined. As of March 18, jeonse (lump-sum deposit) listings in Seoul's Seongbuk District had fallen 91 percent from a year earlier, dropping from 1,427 to 128, according to the real estate data platform Asil. Similar declines of around 80 percent have been recorded in districts such as Jungnang, Nowon, Gwanak and Gangbuk. Monthly rentals show a similar pattern. With fewer listings available, prices have risen. The average monthly rent for apartments in Seoul exceeded 1.51 million won last month, posing a significant burden.

The rental shortage in the Seoul metropolitan area is largely the result of last year's Oct. 15 measures. The land transaction permit system, which requires two years of mandatory residence, was widely expected to reduce rental supply. Those concerns are now materializing. The policy's core aim was to curb transactions. Combined with the end of a temporary suspension of capital gains tax surcharges, apartment prices in Seoul's Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa districts have declined. However, the burden has shifted to tenants in need of housing.

Economic policy must be assessed not only by its intended outcomes but also by its side effects. In many cases, side effects outweigh the benefits. Examples include the income-led growth policy and the 52-hour workweek under the Moon Jae-in administration, as well as cuts to research and development budgets under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

More recently, the passage of judicial reform bills has concentrated power across the executive, legislative and judicial branches. This consolidation is now extending into economic policy. As gasoline prices surged following the Iran conflict, the government introduced a price ceiling, the first such measure in about 30 years. The Fair Trade Commission has also ordered flour producers accused of price collusion to revise their pricing structures.

Price intervention can produce immediate results. It may win public support from those struggling with rising living costs and carries elements of populism. However, the longer-term consequences are more complex and potentially harmful.

First, price controls can distort the market's adjustment mechanism. Rising prices typically suppress demand and encourage supply responses. When prices are artificially constrained, these signals are weakened or disrupted. As a result, shortages can persist or even worsen.

Second, intervention can undermine corporate autonomy and reduce economic vitality. If price controls lower corporate profits, companies may cut back on investment. This can lead to slower growth and weaker domestic demand. For this reason, successive administrations since democratization have generally avoided direct price intervention.

Plans to compensate oil refiners for losses have also sparked controversy. Determining losses requires estimating expected profits and examining cost structures, which are often treated as sensitive corporate information. For companies, disclosing such data can be burdensome and may raise concer...

Amid rising volatility driven by Middle East tensions, the government has renewed its push to revitalize the stock market. President Lee Jae Myung said at a March 18 meeting on capital market stability that crises are precisely when structural reforms must be carried out, calling for efforts to address the Korea discount. Financial authorities reported plans to improve the market by banning multiple listings and expelling underperforming firms, while also strengthening transparency and investor protection measures.

The government's willingness to stabilize markets and pursue reform during a period of uncertainty is a positive signal. The benchmark KOSPI rose 5.04 percent that day, reclaiming the 5,900 level. However, it is notable that no clear warning or policy response was presented regarding the surge in speculative trading and heightened volatility seen this month. Excessive optimism without adequate safeguards risks overheating the market and amplifying price swings, particularly when short-term funds dominate trading activity.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the average daily trading value of high-risk leveraged and inverse exchange-traded products reached 5.6 trillion won as of March 10, about 3.5 times higher than the same period last year. Analysts say fear of missing out has driven large inflows into these instruments, contributing to greater instability. In this context, authorities are also considering the introduction of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, a move that could further increase risk exposure among retail investors and complicate market supervision.

The government's plan to boost the KOSDAQ market has already led to a concentration of funds. A wave of actively managed KOSDAQ exchange-traded funds has attracted significant inflows in a short period. Even among experts who agree that Korean equities are undervalued, many remain cautious about the KOSDAQ due to the slow pace of removing underperforming companies. The fact that capital is pouring in before these structural issues are addressed may signal emerging distortions in market pricing and resource allocation.

Developing the capital market to channel funds into productive sectors and support retirement security is an important goal. However, preventing excessive speculation is also a key responsibility for policymakers. Repeated cycles of sharp rises and declines reinforce the perception of Korean equities as risky assets, discouraging stable long-term investment and ultimately deepening the Korea discount if left unaddressed.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Sarah Chea and read by an artificial voice.

[INTERVIEW]

In the high-stakes race to develop solid-state batteries — a technology viewed as pivotal to the commercialization of humanoid robots — Korea and the United States will need to align their efforts if they hope to keep China at bay, said Siyu Huang, founder and CEO of Factorial Energy.

The Massachusetts-based battery maker is widely regarded as one of the front-runners in the development race of solid-state batteries, often touted as "dream batteries," and is already in cooperation with global automakers like Hyundai Motor, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis.

"We need to work together very quickly because China in 2024 already announced multiple billion-dollar investments into the six companies developing solid state battery," Huang said during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily during InterBattery 2026 at Coex in southern Seoul on March 12.

"We truly believe that the collaboration will accelerate innovation, and it would be very much a shame if we missed this opportunity."

Solid-state batteries offer exceptional safety with minimal risk of fire while delivering energy densities more than twice that of conventional lithium-ion batteries, which can extend driving range. Yet the engineering challenge is formidable, and no company has successfully commercialized the technology at scale.

Factorial Energy conducted a test drive of a Mercedes-Benz EQS equipped with the company's solid-state batteries last year, and confirmed the achievement of a driving range of more than 1,205 kilometers (749 miles) on a single charge.

Factorial is planning to commercialize its product as early as next year, in partnership with a supercar manufacturer based in California.

The U.S. startup in 2021 secured investment from Hyundai Motor and Kia, and has been co-developing solid-state batteries for Korean cars.

Posco Future M in January also made a strategic investment in the company, agreeing to collaborate on the supply of high-performance cathode materials and the development of next-generation materials for solid-state batteries. Cathode materials produced by Posco Future M are expected to be used in the solid-state battery slated for a supercar scheduled to debut next year.

"We're doing various tests with Hyundai and robotics is definitely the goal we're striving for," Huang said. "Posco is the only player in the space that has both cathode and anode production capabilities and has a very broad range of material selection."

As humanoid robots emerge as the next Holy Grail, the strategic importance of solid-state batteries has grown even more pronounced. Robots face strict limits on the space available for batteries, making high energy density per unit of weight and volume essential.

They must also lift heavy objects and execute rapid, precise movements, requiring bursts of high power — performance demands that make solid-state batteries particularly well suited for the task.

Factorial Energy operates a solid-state battery pilot plant in Cheonan. The facility recently completed an expansion, with additional investment planned.

Huang explained that one of the key reasons for establishing a facility in Korea and continuing close collaboration with Korean companies is the need for a resilient supply chain, particularly as the United States seeks to steadily decouple from China.

"When we received investment from IQT under the U.S. government, the first thing they asked was if I had a resilient supply chain," Huang said. "In the current geopolitical situation, China announced the export control restrictions and the Trump administration has this executive order. It's a push and pull situation."

"Korea has been a long-term ally with the United States, and they really like to have this security."

The ongoing U.S.-China conflict has also opened new opportunities for Factorial Energy in the fields of drones and robotics.

"The United States is currently using like 85 percent of t...

This article is by Choi Hye-ri and read by an artificial voice.

The Seoul International Book Fair is exploring how humans should confront artificial intelligence.

The organizers released the theme for 2026 and the accompanying statement on March 7, crediting novelist Kim Yeon-su and two AI models as co-writers — a choice that has stirred debate.

The Seoul International Book Fair takes place in Seoul every June. This year's theme, "Homo duduri," is a portmanteau of "homo sapien" and duduri, a Korean mythical figure known for confronting fire rather than fleeing from it. Duduri, an early form of dokkaebi, or goblin, also historically refers to a blacksmith.

The statement uses that imagery to frame how humans, especially those in the publishing industry, should respond to rapidly advancing AI.

"Humans have created things with fire ever since the first person approached it without fear," the statement reads. "And AI is no different from fire. The issue lies not with the element itself but with what we forge with it."

But readers on social media were more focused on the names listed beneath the text than on the metaphor. The statement credits Kim, a writer known for the 2007 novel "Whoever You Are, No Matter How Lonely" (translated); Claude Sonnet, an AI model developed by the U.S. startup Anthropic; and Gemini, an AI system developed by Google.

Some readers argued that the choice reflected the theme itself, as a statement about living with AI should involve AI in its creation. But many others reacted with surprise or skepticism, commenting, "I can't believe the book fair entrusted its foreword to AI" and "This is shocking."

According to a planner for the Seoul International Book Fair, the decision to use AI to write the statement was a result of the theme itself.

"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the match between Lee Se-dol and AlphaGo, and it is also a time when the use of AI in publishing has become a major topic," the planner said, referring to the Go match between the renowned player and the AI program developed by DeepMind Technologies.

"At the time, [humans and AI] were seen as rivals. Now, the relationship has shifted toward coexistence. 'Homo duduri' refers to the human who confronts this new 'fire' and questions how to live with it."

Kim, who has experimented with using AI in his writing process, created the statement with AI models trained on 10 classic texts from the digital library Project Gutenberg by exchanging prompts and responses.

"We wanted to explore AI as a theme in-depth, so it made sense to us to write the statement with AI," the planner continued. "[Kim] also suggested documenting the process and making it public."

The fair plans to release the documented process in a special limited-edition publication that will accompany the event.

The statement and its surrounding controversy have also revived a broader debate in the publishing industry regarding how writers should disclose the use of AI in their work — or whether they should even use it in the first place.

Under current Korean laws, authors who publish online or in print do not have to disclose whether they used AI tools in the writing process. The Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Creation of a Foundation for Trust, which took effect on Jan. 22, does not explicitly apply to published works.

Lee Yong-hae, a lawyer who serves as advisory counsel for the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Ethics, said the use of AI in published writing remains largely unregulated.

"It's difficult to interpret the current AI framework law as applying to published works," Lee said. "When a human author uses AI to write, whether they disclose that essentially depends on the author's conscience. In that sense, it remains a legal gray area."

But some publishers say that the issue will eventually require strict standards.

A publishing house chief who asked to remain anonymous said that the rapid development o...

This article is by Lee Jae-lim and read by an artificial voice.

Samsung Electronics will supply its sixth-generation high bandwidth memory, or HBM4, to U.S. chip designer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to power company's next-generation AI chips, announced during AMD CEO Lisa Su's two-day visit to Korea .

The announcement came just over a month after the Korean chipmaker began the world's first shipments of the advanced memory.

"Samsung Electronics has been named the preferred supplier of HBM4 for AMD's next-generation AI accelerator, the Instinct MI455X GPU," Samsung said in a statement on Wednesday.

The MI455X belongs to AMD's Instinct family of data-center accelerators designed for AI and high-performance computing workloads.

"Based on industry-leading performance, reliability and power efficiency delivered by HBM4, our memory will provide an optimal solution for AMD GPUs in AI model training and inference," Samsung said.

The deal is part of an expanded partnership between Samsung Electronics and AMD to collaborate on next-generation AI memory and computing technologies announced on Wednesday. AMD CEO Lisa Su, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Jun Young-hyun, who oversees the company's semiconductor business, and other senior executives attended the memorandum of understanding ceremony held at Samsung's Pyeongtaek campus in Gyeonggi.

Under the agreement, the two companies will also collaborate on improving the performance of AMD's Helios rack-scale AI system, which integrates dozens of MI455X accelerators per rack for large-scale AI workloads. They will also work together on double data rate 5 (DDR5) memory upgrades to maximize the performance of sixth-generation EPYC processors, the company's next-generation data-center CPUs.

"Samsung and AMD share a commitment to advancing AI computing, and this agreement reflects the growing scope of our collaboration," Jun said. "From industry-leading HBM4 and next-generation memory architectures to cutting-edge foundry and advanced packaging, Samsung is uniquely positioned to deliver unrivaled turnkey capabilities that support AMD's evolving AI roadmap."

"Powering the next generation of AI infrastructure requires deep collaboration across the industry," Su said. "We are thrilled to expand our work with Samsung, bringing together their leadership in advanced memory with our Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale platforms. Integration across the full computing stack, from silicon to system to rack, is essential to accelerating AI innovation that translates into real-world impact at scale."

The relationship between Samsung and AMD dates back nearly two decades, when Samsung supplied graphics double data rate 4 memory to AMD's early Radeon graphics cards in 2007. Since then, the partnership has expanded to include memory supply, chip design collaboration and IP licensing. Samsung also supplied 12-layer HBM3E memory for AMD's MI350X and MI355 AI accelerators in 2025.

Samsung recently unveiled its seventh-generation HBM4E at Nvidia's GTC 2026 conference in California on Monday. The HBM4 chips are built using the company's 10-nanometer-class 1c dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and a 4-nanometer logic process, delivering processing speeds of up to 11.7 gigabits per second and maximum bandwidth of 3.3 terabytes per second.

Earlier the same day, Su also met with Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, at the company's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. The two companies signed a separate MOU to collaborate on deploying AMD's AI chips for Naver's AI models and cloud services.

The two companies also plan to support broader AI research by providing AI computing resources to academic researchers and pursuing joint research projects across diverse infrastructure platforms.

This article is by Sarah Chea and read by an artificial voice.

As Korea's stock market fluctuates amid the Iran war — rollercoastering wildly in an unusually volatile pattern — the turmoil has become fodder for memes circulating across online communities.

From memes comparing the plunging Kospi with the shape of the Strait of Hormuz to posts lampooning the country's corporate titans, the online satire captures the anxiety of retail investors who piled into the market, some even with borrowed money.

The benchmark bourse, which enjoyed a heyday as it surged to a record high of around 6,300 in late February, had suffered a sharp dip due to the war and hovered around 5,500 as of Tuesday. On March 3 and 4, right after the start of the war, the Kospi lost about 1 quadrillion won ($670 billion) in value, dragging the index down into the 5,000 range.

The nosedive stood in stark contrast to other global markets. The NYSE Composite Index fell only 0.35 percent on March 2 and 1.77 percent on March 3, immediately after the outbreak of war, before rebounding 0.38 percent on March 4. The Nasdaq Composite showed similar resilience, rising 0.36 percent on March 2 and then dipping only 1.02 percent on March 3.

Japan's Nikkei 225 also experienced an initial drop of 2.27 percent on the day following the conflict, but recovered 0.94 percent the next day.

Memes chronicle Korea's market madness

On Reddit, one viral meme based on a bar chart of the Kospi compares the steep plunge to the shape of the strategic Hormuz waterway, with users joking that "the Korean market is trading on the 'Escape From the Strait of Hormuz' chart."

The chart tracks the dramatic trajectory of the index, which touched an intraday record of 6,347.41 on Feb. 27 before tumbling in the wake of the Iran war, sliding to 5,093.54 by March 4 after two days of steep losses.

Another widely shared "tycoon meme," riffing on Korea's most prominent corporate leaders, depicts Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Chey Tae-won of SK Group and Hyundai Motor Group chief Euisun Chung speeding away in a car as war looms in the background, with captions like "I'll be back — just wait a little," while another depicts Lee positioned at the door of a helicopter with a parachute on his back as the tail rotor explodes, accompanied by the text "No time to explain, get out now," a tongue-in-cheek signal for investors to dump their falling stocks.

In contrast, a similar meme features Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn beckoning from a driver's seat with the line "No time to explain — get in" as shares of the conglomerate's defense subsidiaries surged amid the war.

One particularly popular clip shows a man sprinting after a bus he has just missed, only for the vehicle to explode moments later, symbolizing investors chasing a surging market, only to narrowly miss the sudden downturn. The video uses a scene from SBS's "Stairway to Heaven" (2003-04) when the main character, played by Kwon Sang-woo, runs after a bus carrying his presumed-dead first love, portrayed by Choi Ji-woo.

Other widely circulated clips include footage of the late actor Lee Soon-jae from the documentary program "Human Theater" (2000-) in which he remarks, "It may be awkward for the person involved, but to a third party, it's objectively amusing," expressing the schadenfreude of some who felt they missed the Kospi's surge, only to dodge the perceived massive losses by retail investors who appear to be losing money at nearly every turn.

The 'Roller Kospi'

Korea's stock market — riding an unprecedented wave before the war — has since plunged with dizzying speed, transforming into what traders now call the world's most extreme roller coaster, or the "Roller Kospi."

The bourse, which closed at 2,698.97 on June 2 of last year, the last trading session before President Lee Jae Myung took office, surged to blow past the 5,000 mark for the first time in intraday trading on Jan. 22, improbably realizing his campaign promise...

The author is a professor at Hallym University.

My wife proudly presented a vegetable shaped like a UFO. It was spring cabbage, known as bomdong. She added that bomdong bibimbap is now the latest trend. Trends are supposed to move quickly, but the pace of change in food culture today feels almost breathless. Until recently, it was the era of "dujjonku," a Korean abbreviation for Dubai chewy cookies, which enjoyed a brief surge in popularity before quickly fading, yet it already seems to have ceded its place to bomdong bibimbap.

The rise of trends can be explained in psychology by the bandwagon effect. When people make choices, they treat the decisions of others as a form of information. The fact that many people choose something makes it appear more valuable. Another factor is FOMO, or the fear of missing out. This anxiety pushes people to try what others are experiencing, driven by the worry of being left behind or excluded from shared experiences.

Yet as a trend spreads, its scarcity inevitably declines. Scarcity plays a key role in increasing perceived reward value in the brain. When supply expands rapidly to meet demand, that sense of scarcity disappears. In the online environment, where related information is constantly circulated and excessively exposed, even psychological scarcity diminishes. As scarcity falls, the trend naturally fades. In an era of rapid information flow and constant updates, it is unsurprising that trends now have shorter life spans than before.

Even so, the swift shift from the sweet and stimulating appeal of dujjonku to the mild simplicity of bomdong bibimbap is noteworthy. I recently read a comment online: "After eating dujjonku, I felt sorry for my body, so I had bomdong bibimbap." It sounds like a joke, but it reflects a deeper tendency. Humans seek to maintain balance between body and mind, a principle known as homeostasis. People cannot sustain one-sided experiences for long. While they may be drawn to intense stimulation, repeated exposure often leads them to seek lighter and more balanced alternatives.

Humans are, at their core, beings that pursue equilibrium. This is not limited to food. In a world of rapid change and strong currents of influence, people will continue to move between extremes, much like shifting from dujjonku to bomdong bibimbap, as they create their own sense of balance in everyday life and adapt to changing preferences.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

Each March, cherry blossoms that tint the Potomac River basin in Washington with pink are seen as a symbol of the U.S.-Japan friendship. The tradition began in March 1912, when Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki donated about 3,000 Yoshino cherry saplings to Washington. At the time, he faced criticism in Japan for offering what some called "the spirit of Japan" to a country that might one day become an adversary. Ozaki did not waver. The trees survived two world wars and today serve as a form of soft power strengthening bilateral ties.

More than a century later, on March 19, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will arrive in Washington. Marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in July, she plans to donate 250 additional cherry trees and stage a fireworks display showcasing Akita Prefecture's signature pyrotechnics. Behind the symbolism, however, lies an unusually cold "bill" from an ally.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been explicit. With military tensions with Iran at a peak, he has pressed key allies, including Korea and Japan, to dispatch naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz. The argument begins with a blunt premise: Countries should protect the vessels that carry their energy supplies. It escalates into a test of alliance credibility, with Trump emphasizing that the request is not due to a lack of U.S. military capacity but a way to gauge how allies respond. His transactional view of alliances is now directed squarely at partners such as Japan.

For Takaichi, the request goes beyond a military decision. It is a major test of her leadership. Having presented herself as the political heir to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an advocate of a "strong Japan," she now faces a moment to demonstrate the effectiveness of the security legislation Abe established. Japan's Self-Defense Forces conducted minesweeping operations in the Persian Gulf after the 1991 Gulf War. In 2015, the Abe administration revised security laws to enable the limited exercise of collective self-defense, explicitly citing mine removal in the Strait of Hormuz as a possible scenario. The legal basis, at least in principle, is in place.

Yet, a closer legal assessment complicates matters. Within the Japanese government, there is a cautious view that the current situation with Iran may not meet the legal thresholds of a "survival-threatening situation" or an "important influence situation" under existing security laws. Japan holds substantial oil reserves equivalent to about 254 days of supply, and providing rear-area support to U.S. forces during active hostilities could risk exceeding the limits set by the pacifist Constitution. As a result, any deployment is likely to be confined to escorting Japan-related vessels under the framework of maritime security operations.

Public opinion further constrains the government. Skepticism over the legitimacy of the conflict has grown following a reported U.S. airstrike in southern Iran last month that mistakenly hit a girls' elementary school in Minab, killing 175 students. Japanese public sentiment has hardened. A recent Asahi Shimbun poll found that 82 percent of respondents opposed the U.S. attack on Iran. More than half also criticized Takaichi for remaining silent on the justification for the strike. Even within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, concerns have been raised that the situation represents a moral dilemma distinct from the pragmatic approach taken under Abe, who often relied on indirect measures to balance domestic and alliance considerations.

Despite these pressures, Takaichi is heading to Washington for another reason: China. Shortly after taking office, she made strong remarks linking a potential Taiwan contingency to Japan's own security. In response, China imposed export restrictions on rare earth materials, a move that has put Japan's industrial sector under strain. Takaichi is expected to seek U.S. support on this issue, hoping Tr...