President Lee Jae-myung's wife, Kim Hea-kyung, on the 23rd (local time) visited a side-dish shop, a mart, and a bookstore in New York's Koreatown and met with Korean merchants.
Jeon Eun-su, deputy spokesperson for the presidential office, said this in a written briefing on the 24th. According to the presidential office, Kim first stopped by a side-dish shop that has been operating in Koreatown for 25 years.
The side-dish shop owner said, "There are more local customers than Korean customers," and added, "The best-selling side dishes are gimbap and japchae." The owner went on, "Food that keeps the original Korean taste, not adapted to American tastes, is very popular."
In response, Kim told the side-dish shop owner, "It seems gimbap is especially popular because there was a scene in a movie where someone eats whole gimbap." She added, "Food makes up a large part of culture, and these days K-food is in the spotlight." She continued, "Once people get used to a food, it's hard to move away from it. Thank you for widely promoting this important Korean food culture."
Afterward, Kim visited a mart, where, after hearing from a clerk that Korean side dishes are the top-selling items, she bought instant tteokbokki.
Finally, during a visit to a bookstore, Kim said, "Since you are running a bookstore in New York, you must be feeling the K-pop boom at the forefront."
The bookstore owner replied, "I have run the bookstore for 20 years, and these days I can physically feel the popularity of the Korean Wave," adding, "With the rising popularity of Korean culture thanks to the animated film 'K-pop Demon Hunters' and writer Han Kang's Nobel Prize win, sales of books to learn Hangeul and study guides for the Test of Proficiency in Korean have surged explosively."