By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 8, 2026
Earlier this week, two Boston-based Korean American men snuck a container of kimchi into BTS’ concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachussetts. Today, Max Karmin and Kevin Park shared their escapades on Instagram.
On the surface, it’s a cute video of them trying to get Kevin’s homemade kimchi to Jung Kook. Surprisingly, he was able to sneak it in without anyone confiscating it. And once inside, the pair roamed around the stadium until they got the attention of some of the pop group’s staff, including the group’s manager.
Kevin’s goal was to get Jung Kook to taste his homemade kimchi. SPOILER ALERT: He was not successful.
Before I go on, let me say that the point of this post isn’t to get either of these young Korean American men harassed. As far as influencers go, they create interesting content that isn’t all about them, but rather the communities they serve.
Max focuses on Boston-area restaurants that are lacking customers, highlights them on his social media, pays for his own meals, and promotes the eateries without charging them. He has mentioned on some reels that his mother is Korean. He is doing food influencing right.
Meanwhile Kevin sells his jiggae/(찌개) and other homecooked Korean meals via Facebook marketplace (and maybe other social media apps?). His dishes look delicious. Kevin has mentioned that his mother sells homemade Korean food out where she lives as well.
But BTS has a long history of asking fans not to gift them with any material goods, including food. In January 2018, their management sent out a release that stated that the only thing the group would accept from fans (other than their affection, of course) were letters mailed to their company. Even before then, fans relayed stories of meeting Jimin in the wild and offering to purchase his convenience store snacks for him. He thanked them, but politely declined.
When the septet enlisted for their mandatory military duty — Jin was the first in December 2022 — they sent out another reminder to not send gifts to where they were stationed.
In May 2023, Jung Kook asked fans to stop sending food deliveries to his home. He would not accept them, he said, and if the food somehow did make it past his gate, it would be tossed into the trash bin.
This is pretty standard for most celebrities (and should be for anyone).1 Even if the gifts are from well-intentioned people, the artists have no way of knowing if the food has been tampered with or is safe to eat.
(For better or for worse, journalists are pretty fearless/stupid when it comes to free food,2 risks be damned!)
In October 2006, TVXQ’s Yunho drank orange juice from someone he assumed was a fan. The stalker had laced the drink with cyanoacrylate adhesive (or super glue). It was serious enough that he ended up in the emergency room. The doctor treating him told the news media that had the super glue entered the idol’s lungs, Yunho would’ve most likely been in critical condition.
In a 2019 episode of Analog Trip, Yunho said that while they were filming the show, he experienced a debilitating headache that gave him flashbacks of how sick he felt when he drank that tainted juice. “I almost died once,” the actor-singer said on the show. “I felt some familiarity. I felt like I couldn’t breathe since I was still swept up by the trauma I experienced.”
That incident is just one reason why many idols will not (and should not) accept food from strangers. It’s too high risk.
Do I think Kevin or Max had any bad intentions with their kimchi? Absolutely not.
Do I think they knew there was no way that container of kimchi would ever make its way into any BTS member’s hands? Yes.
Do I think their video was a clever and fun way for them to get some attention from BTS’ fandom, ARMY? You bet.
I understand all of this, but I hope other influencers (and fans) don’t follow suit and try to offer BTS gifts that they have repeatedly said they will not accept.
So in the prudent words3 of our sage, Suga…
© 2026 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
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Thank you, and have a wonderful weekend!
More BTS content:
1 Last year, my son was getting the mail for neighbors who were on vacation overseas. He called me and said, “Mom, there’s a tray of meatballs on their front door and they’re still warm. What should I do?” There was no bag to indicate if it had come from a restaurant. There was no receipt or note. We checked with other neighbors to see if it had possibly been misdelivered. It belonged to no one that we knew of, so we threw it out. (Truth be told, my son and his friend said it smelled delicious and asked if they could eat it. NO! Because. We. Do. Not. Eat. Random. Food. (That had been sitting out in the hot sun, no less, for who knows how long before we found it!) That tray of meatballs did smell good though, I will give him that.)
2 After 9/11, the food critic where I worked received a packaged pound cake. She didn’t know the sender. This was around the time when powdery anthrax spores were sent to news organizations via U.S. mail. Five people were killed and dozens more got sick from making contact. Without opening the shrink wrap, she tossed the cake in the trash can. Don’t you know that within a few minutes, a copy editor had dug it out of the garbage, opened the plastic, and eaten a slice. And then he put it out on the free table for the rest of us to enjoy. (You all know me well enough to know that I did not eat the cake.) No one got sick, by the way.
3 Hajima/하지마 means don’t do it or stop it.
© 2026 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
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