The “globalization of Korean food” was one of the major goals in the cultural domain of the previous Lee Myung-bak administration. Then first lady Kim Yoon-ok, known as a good cook, took the voluntary mission of propagating Korean culinary culture overseas during the five years while her husband was struggling to bring about an economic recovery and strengthen national security.

Criticism was raised, however, when Kim spent state funds for the publication of a cook book in English under her authorship and arranged the establishment of a posh Korean restaurant in Manhattan with the Seoul government’s financial support. Yet, the Hansik Globalization Foundation – Hansik meaning Korean food -- vigorously pushed the gastronomical campaign during the Lee administration with the first lady, as honorary adviser, actually directing its operation at home and abroad.

Over 130 billion won ($115 million) was released from the government budget to the HGF to raise “global awareness” of Korean cuisine, to explore overseas market for hansik, to develop localized Korean food, to support overseas advancement of Korean culinary experts, etc. These promotional activities have ebbed since the change of administration in 2013 – state support decreased from a peak of 31.1 billion won in 2011 to some 7 billion won in 2016.

The controversial Mir Foundation took over from the HGF the project of training chefs in Korean cuisine at Ecole Ferrandi, the gastronomical school in Paris, with Korean sponsorship in December 2015, two months after the organization was started in Seoul with the broad purpose of promoting Korean culture in the global community.

Mired in the Choi Soon-sil scandal, the Mir and K-Sports foundations are about to be dismantled, as it was disclosed that the Blue House was involved in the formation of the two bodies with forced donations from major conglomerates. Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s close confidante for decades, and An Chong-bum, chief presidential aide for policies until last week, are under arrest for investigation of their roles in the creation of the two foundations.

When Mir is shut down, the Ecole Ferrandi program for Korean cooking will cease to exist and the hansik globalization project, so ambitiously launched by the former first lady with state support in 2009, will meet its demise. I do not have any quotable data on how many global citizens have become newly aware of the culinary delights of Korean food thanks to the Kim Yoon-ok drive; I simply doubt it was worth the cost.

The accounting must not be limited to the 130 billion won in taxpayers’ money, but the time and energy spent by many Korean gastronomical professionals who took part in so many exhibitions and other events held in overseas locations to help foreigners experience hansik. I can only imagine what outcome there might be if that much money was invested by talented and enterprising Korean restaurateurs in European and American cities. A hansik foundation could help them with neatly printed menus in local languages.

Naturally, we are proud of our traditional as well as contemporary culture – foods, fashion, song, dance and other forms of entertainment, drama, films and games – and would therefore like to have more people outside the Korean Peninsula enjoy them as we do. Our culture is different from theirs but we are pleased when we see foreigners try freshly mixed kimchi and raise their thumbs, lashing their tingling tongues. But it is out of vanity or an inferiority complex that we have made excessive efforts to share our culture with outsiders.

True, culture has become industry in many areas and has also become an important soft power asset in the competitive global society. National governments have established departments of culture in their administrative organizations for domestic promotion of cultural activities and to increase international exchanges, aware that culture develops through external contacts. But, let us be more scrupulous about the role of government in the domain of culture, particularly any attempt of political interference in it.

It was in 1968, 20 years after the establishment of the Republic of Korea government, that we had the Ministry of Culture, in the fashion of the Charles de Gaulle government’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs that became famous with Andre Malraux. In subsequent administrative reorganizations, sports and tourism functions were added to it while cultural heritage affairs were separated from it.

Administrative services in the cultural areas have continued to expand in accordance with Parkinson’s law – that work expands to fill the resources allotted to it. Official hands touched almost all aspects of culture and arts in the name of sponsorship, guidance, international promotion and regulation. But, culture can better develop through individual initiatives and entrepreneurship than via government intervention, as the success of K-pop proves. Also, we should remember how the official campaign to “export” the Korean alphabet Hangeul to a Pacific tribe sparked accusations of cultural imperialism.

The Mir and K-Sports foundations have now become monuments of corruption and abuse of political power. Choi Soon-sil and her family chose the fields of culture and sports as the playground of their influence-peddling, perhaps because resistance against outside interference is relatively weak here and traces of meddling are easier to hide. People are less attentive to official appointments of cultural administrators than other government positions.

President Park named Cha Eun-taek, a commercial film director and a close associate of Choi Soon-sil, to lead her brainchildren Creative Economy Promotion Board and the Cultural Prosperity Board last year and assigned him to assemble the staffs for the Mir and K-Sports foundations. Cha quickly earned the nickname “crown prince” in cultural circles.

Cha’s connection was suspected when his uncle became chief presidential secretary for cultural and educational affairs and his college professor was installed as the minister of culture late in 2014. Earlier, Park had dismissed a culture minister for defying her wish to punish staff of the Korean Equestrian Association who failed to give Choi’s daughter a championship in a local competition to select national representative athletes.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is in tatters with its minister and ranking officials replaced so frequently. The ministry’s business is blunted both in domestic and overseas activities. Sorry to say, but the virtual recess could be a blessing in the wider cultural realm, as the global community is wise enough to tell government-driven cultural incursion from natural exchanges. 

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He served as head of the Korea Overseas Information Service in the early 2000s. – Ed.