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Taiwan branch of Korean tteokbokki franchise uses anti-Korean marketing campaign after WBC result

Published: 13 Mar. 2026, 14:01

Social media post from Dookki's Taiwan branch [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The Taiwan arm of Korean tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) franchise Dookki has come under fire for allegedly using anti-Korean marketing.

“We recently confirmed that Dookki Taiwan expressed distorted facts while running a promotional event,” Dookki headquarters said in an official statement on Thursday. “We feel grave responsibility and sincerely apologize to everyone who felt discomfort and disappointment.”

The controversy stemmed from an event promotion uploaded Wednesday to Dookki Taiwan’s official social media account.

“We’re sorry Korea manipulated the score,” Dookki Taiwan said in the post. It went on to claim that the “tteokbokki guy,” apparently referring to Moon Bo-gyeong, struck out in the top of the ninth inning of the Korea-Australia game so that another run would not score.

“The passive attitude made Dookki’s boss very angry,” the post said. It added that “Dookki apologizes on behalf of the tteokbokki guy for making baseball fans around the world furious.”

Earlier, Korea beat Australia 7-2 in its fourth and final Pool C game of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) at Tokyo Dome, leaving Chinese Taipei out of the quarterfinals.

Lee Jung-hoo of Korea celebrates after hitting an RBI double against Australia during the teams' Pool C game at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on March 9. [YONHAP]

Some baseball fans in Taiwan then vented on social media, saying Chinese Taipei would have advanced to the quarterfinals if Korea had won 8-3, suggesting that Moon intentionally struck out in his final at-bat.

Dookki Taiwan also posted a photo of a man kneeling and holding a sign that read, “A grown-up does not blame tteokbokki.”

It also promoted a discounted two-person set for NT$540 ($16.9) through the end of March. The price appeared to allude to Korea’s 5-4 loss to Chinese Taipei in Sunday’s third Pool C game.

“This event was independently planned and operated by our partner in Taiwan,” Dookki headquarters said. “It was carried out without any involvement from headquarters.”

“As soon as we became aware of the matter, we asked the local partner to delete the post and issued a stern warning to prevent a recurrence,” said the company, adding that it would further strengthen its global store operation guidelines to ensure that something similar does not happen again.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]