SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - Foreign ambassadors will gather at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul later this month for South Korea's first official Hansik Day, or Korean Food Day. The foreign ministry put them on the guest list with an eye on what comes after the meal, when the envoys report back to their capitals.
"Domestic ministries, after all, don't have a direct channel of communication with foreign countries," said Yi Min-jin, who heads the Cultural Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). "So we asked what ways the foreign ministry could support promotion abroad."
Yi spoke with AJP by phone on Wednesday, about two weeks before her ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) open the 2026 Hansik Festa at the museum. The festival runs from Oct. 23 to 25, bracketing the Oct. 24 holiday, and opens on its first day with a ceremony for diplomats, food industry figures, and academics.
The ministries said they drew the diplomatic guests from major export markets for Korean food and from countries marking anniversaries of diplomatic relations with South Korea.
"We can't invite every embassy in Korea, but there are countries marking anniversaries of diplomatic ties with us," Yi said. "We selected missions where it carries a bit more meaning."
As she sees it, the payoff comes after the plates are cleared.
"When heads of mission attend the event, they report the results to their home governments," she said. "That way, we thought we could help make the domestic ministry's work known abroad as well. As they report home, it can send a signal that the two countries are growing closer through Korean food."
There is an audience waiting at the other end. In a survey released in March by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, 27,400 people familiar with Korean culture in 30 countries and regions ranked food as the most popular Korean cultural export in their own countries. It drew 55.1 percent, edging out music and beauty.
A survey of 11,000 consumers in 22 overseas cities, conducted last year by MAFRA and the Korean Food Promotion Institute, found that 68.6 percent knew Korean food, a record for the survey. Nearly two-thirds said Korean pop culture had led them to try it or take an interest in it.
Hansik Day fits into what President Lee Jae Myung's government calls the K-Initiative, an effort to bundle South Korea's experience, capabilities, values and appeal in culture, industry, technology and democracy into a single strategic asset and spread it abroad.
Much of that work falls to MOFA. This year it finished setting up K-Initiative councils at all 173 of its diplomatic missions, pulling together the overseas offices of public institutions, companies and Korean community groups. On May 21, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun chaired the first interagency meeting on spreading the K-Initiative abroad, with director general-level officials from 11 ministries and agencies, MAFRA among them.
Yi said the ministries were still working out how to cooperate when lawmakers created Hansik Day. The National Assembly passed an amendment to the Korean Food Promotion Act on June 18, and the law took effect July 7. It names Oct. 24 as Hansik Day and the week that begins that day as Hansik Week. The date pairs the number 10, meant to stand for completion and harmony, with the 24 seasonal divisions of the traditional calendar.
The two ministries had already teamed up abroad. In January, MOFA and MAFRA named 30 embassies and consulates as K-food export hubs, assigning them to help exporters with customs, quarantine and other trade barriers, fight counterfeit products and pitch Korean food to local opinion leaders, influencers and consumers.
Yi was careful not to oversell the festival as a first.
"Rather than a first step, we have done small-scale cooperation before," she said. "With this as an occasion, we are communicating often with the agriculture ministry and keep looking for ways to link our events."
Each ministry has long promoted Korean food and culture on its own, she said, and joint work has mostly run through missions overseas. "Usually we have done this through our missions abroad, so it is more meaningful that we have now cooperated in Seoul as well."
Beyond the ceremony, the festival offers a conference on the future of Korean cuisine, cooking demonstrations and classes, a talk show, a flea market and restaurant pop-up stores around the museum's Geoulmot pond. Registration for the Oct. 23 conference opens Oct. 8, and sign-ups for the hands-on programs open Oct. 12.
Yi took over the division in August after a posting at South Korea's mission in Myanmar. Of her time abroad, she said, "Truly, everyone knows tteokbokki," the spicy stir-fried rice cakes.
"When I was working in Myanmar and talked with the younger generation, the topics that always came up without fail were food and K-pop," she recalled. Korean restaurants are common there, she said, and Korean ramyeon is sold everywhere.
"For young people, K-pop and food are easier to approach," Yi said. "I think it is K-food and K-pop that serve as the gateway, an easy way into knowing Korea."
AJP Takeaways
- Yi Min-jin, director of the Cultural Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry invited ambassadors in Seoul to South Korea's first Hansik Day because domestic ministries have no direct channel to foreign countries and heads of mission report such events to their home governments. She made the remarks in a phone interview with AJP on Wednesday.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will co-host the 2026 Hansik Festa at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul from Oct. 23 to 25, opening with a ceremony for diplomats from major export markets for Korean food and from countries marking anniversaries of diplomatic relations with South Korea.
- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange reported in March that food ranked as the most popular Korean cultural category abroad, cited by 55.1 percent of 27,400 people familiar with Korean culture in 30 countries and regions.
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