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Forget the Dow Jones or the NASDAQ. To truly understand the pressures on the South Korean economy and the real-world impact of climate change, you need to look at the price of Napa cabbage. This is the story of the 'kimchi index,' the humble economic indicator that holds a nation's anxieties in a single, fermented jar. In Seoul, the cost of making kimchi isn't just a dinner table calculation; it's a street-level reading of the nation's economic pulse, a more tangible measure of inflation than any government report. This index doesn't track stocks or bonds; it tracks the volatile price of cabbage, garlic, and chili—the essential components of a dish that sits on nearly every Korean table, every single day.