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Gwangjang Market restaurant owner denies claim that employees regularly reuse ice from trash

Published: 02 May. 2026, 18:29

Two stills from CCTV footage show a Gwangjang Market restaurant employee rummaging through a trash bin, allegedly to find discarded ice, left, then washing it with a rubber hose. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The owner of a restaurant in central Seoul’s Gwangjang Market has denied the claim that they make their employees reportedly reuse discarded ice.

According to the tipster featured on the latest Friday episode of JTBC’s “Crime Chief” (2014–), they witnessed the incident from a nearby cafe overlooking the market at around noon on Thursday.

Video provided by the tipster appears to show a restaurant worker rummaging through a trash bin in front of the establishment and retrieving a plastic cup containing ice. The worker then washes the ice in the cup about twice with water from a rubber hose before dumping it into a Styrofoam box. Shortly afterward, another employee opens the box and places the ice over a prepared fish.

The restaurant owner told “Crime Chief” that they had only instructed staff to tidy up any discarded drinks that had fallen out of the trash bin or were left on the ground in front of the shop.

“I neither instructed nor was informed about them reusing ice,” the owner of the restaurant told the program. “It’s possible that the employee did it out of a sense that the ice was being wasted.”

Gwangjang Market has previously faced controversy for overcharging customers. The issue came to light on April 16, when a foreign YouTuber living in Korea uploaded a video showing a vendor charging 2,000 won ($1.35) for a 500-milliliter (17-ounce) bottle of water.

The stall in question was suspended from operation for three days from April 22 to 24 following a disciplinary decision by the merchants’ association.

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 HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]