November is the kimchi-making season in the DPRK.
All families make full bok choy kimchi as the main dish and others including hot pickles of chopped radishes, wrapped-up kimchi and watery radish kimchi.
Full bok choy kimchi is made by pickling halved bok choy with salt, cleaning it, putting between the leaves of the vegetable a mixture of seasonings made with powdered red pepper, Welsh onion, garlic and ginger, fish, pickled fish and the like before fermenting them. It is regarded as an indispensable subsidiary food in the dietary life of the Korean people.
The kinds of fish and pickled fish mixed with the seasonings vary according to local areas.
The traditional kimchi-making custom prevails in families even today when Kimchi factories produce the dish by an industrial method.
Kimchi counts as one of five world-famous health foods for its hot and refreshing taste and fragrance and unique nutritive and pharmacological values.
UNESCO put the kimchi-making practice of the DPRK on the world intangible cultural heritage list in 2015.
