Cold War battle cry takes on new form: Spicy rice cakes

Gukdae Tteokbokki CEO Kim Sang-hyun speaks about his newly released ready-to-cook product "Myeolgong Tteokbokki" in this video uploaded last month. Captured from Kim's YouTube

It is an unlikely pairing: a bowl of spicy, chewy rice cakes and a militant battle cry from the darkest days of the Cold War.

But when Gukdae Tteokbokki, a prominent budget snack franchise, branded its latest product with a slogan once used to mobilize the nation against North Korea, a quintessentially South Korean snack became a political lightning rod.

The ready-to-cook meal is labeled "Myeolgong Tteokbokki," a name that translates to "crush the communists." In a society still deeply traumatized by its divided history, reviving such provocative language has stirred debate over whether the snack company is peddling nostalgia or weaponizing hate.

The red-and-white package pairs the Korean and U.S. flags and splashes slogans such as “Anti-communism is patriotism” and “Communists out” across the front, alongside “100 percent Korean chili powder, 0 percent Chinese chili powder.”

Kim Sang-hyun, the chief executive of Gukdae Tteokbokki, said he only wanted to “enlighten the people.” In a social media post, he echoed a phrase used by supporters of former President Yoon Suk Yeol to justify his controversial declaration of martial law as a way to “educate” the public.

In a YouTube video uploaded last month titled “A Boycott of Myeolgong Tteokbokki Has Begun,” Kim framed the product as a civic mission rather than a marketing gimmick.

"Myeolgong Tteokbokki," a ready-to-cook product released by Gukdae Tteokbokki on Jan. 23 / Captured from Kim's Instagram

“The message I want to send is ‘Myeolgong,’” he said. “Those who freak out over the slogan on this tteokbokki [product] are anti‑state, communist forces,” he added, urging churches to teach that communism is “Satan worship” and calling on supporters to buy the product as gifts and “teach your children this is our national identity.”

The company and its CEO declined to comment when contacted by The Korea Times.

Myeolgong Tteokbokki is not an isolated case. In recent years, a string of eateries and social events has embraced explicitly far-right branding.

Since 2022, “Myeolgong Banjeom,” a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, Gyeonggi Province, has gained online attention for menu items with names like “Myeolgong Jajangmyeon” and “Long Live the Republic of Korea Udon.”

During the impeachment crisis that unseated Yoon in late 2024, conservative student groups organized evening "Myeolgong Festivals" near the Embassy of China in downtown Seoul and in the capital's nightlife districts, waving Korean and U.S. flags and chanting slogans such as "CCP (Chinese Communist Party) out," "No China," and "Yoon again." At a March 2025 event in northwestern Seoul billed as the "Freedom Is Not Free Festival," booths offered "Myeolgong tteokbokki," "conservative fishcakes" and drinks branded "Yoon‑caccino," presenting the gathering as a cultural celebration of freedom and opposing Yoon’s impeachment.

Young supporters of former President Yoon Suk Yeol hold a "Myeolgong Festival" anti-China protest in front of the Embassy of China in Seoul, Feb. 9, 2025. Yonhap

The slogan is laden with historical weight. "Myeolgong" entered common usage during the 1950–53 Korean War, when South Korea faced invasion from the North, which was later supported by Chinese forces.

The phrase was central to President Syngman Rhee’s “northward reunification” doctrine and later to Gen. Park Chung‑hee’s military regime, which elevated anti‑communism as state ideology.

Even after the term softened into “seunggong,” or “victory over communism,” in the 1970s detente era, viewing internal critics as potential “commies” survived in South Korea’s political culture and deeply affected the generation raised during the Cold War.

Participants carry anti-communist slogans during a large rally in Yeouido, Seoul, May 16, 1975, three days after President Park Chung-hee issued an emergency decree and started his authoritarian rule as the Fourth Republic. Screenshot from KTV YouTube

For many South Koreans in their 50s and older, “myeolgong” still evokes bomb shelters, air-raid drills and existential fear. For Korea's youngest generations, however, it's a meme.

While running for president, Yoon went shopping at local big box retailer Emart, and was photographed with anchovies and bean sprouts in his basket — ingredients whose names in Korean can be combined and shortened to "myeolgong." Around the same time, Emart chief Chung Yong‑jin made headlines by repeatedly posting “#myeolgong” on Instagram alongside news images of China’s Xi Jinping, before later clarifying that his criticism was aimed at North Korea.

As the posts circulated in far-right online communities, "myeolgong' was stripped of its roots in firsthand wartime experience and repurposed as an edgy, defiant slogan for young conservatives.

As young people face a fiercely competitive job market and record-high housing costs, men have gravitated toward conservatism as they perceive state-led gender equality initiatives as a form of reverse discrimination that puts them at a disadvantage — especially when combined with the career disruptions of mandatory military service for young males.

The numbers suggest this is more than just online posturing.

According to Gallup Korea, the share of men in their 20s who identify as conservative surged from 18 percent in January 2020 to 28 percent in January 2024. By January 2025, that figure had climbed to 40 percent among men in their 20s and 30s combined.

Voting behavior tells a similar story.

In the 2022 presidential election, 58.7 percent of men aged 18‑29 voted for conservative candidate Yoon, while young women in the same age group backed his progressive rival by a similar margin. By the June 2025 presidential election, 74.1 percent of men in their 20s supported conservative candidates, according to exit polls.

A 2025 election study by sociology professor Kim Chang-hwan from the University of Kansas found that 15.6 percent of men in their 20s and 16 percent of men in their 30s met criteria for “far‑right” classification based on approval of autocracy, support for martial law, endorsement of force against feminists and hostility toward LGBTQ people and refugees.

Meanwhile, back in his kitchen, Kim is unapologetic.

“Buy this tteokbokki. Give it as a gift. Teach people that this is our country’s identity,” Kim told his viewers.