No, that's not a typo, and no, we're not kidding. Reports from the Yonhap news agency have recently been going around saying that South Korea is already picking out the lucky people who would become their first astronauts, and who will then be trained and sent into space by 2008. Their mission would be to conduct some experiments alongside their Russian counterparts.

However, one cannot expect to just be thrown into orbit without some comfort food, right? This is where the Korea Food Research Institute comes in, since they are currently working to find ways to send their national dish, kimchi, into space. They are collaborating with a culinary institute in Kazakhstan who has previously provided yum-yums to Russian space crews.

Besides kimchi though, they are also planning to send kimchi's friends along for the trip: gochujang (a sort of chili paste), and ginseng. Whether these dishes will end up in either paste form or as dehydrated food items in a foil bag is unknown, though many are also led to wonder if the said supply of space kimchi will also be served with a helping of space breath mints.