Is Korea’s tap water safe to drink?

““I personally prefer tap water. I’d say bottled water is as good as dead water.” That is the view of Choe Jae-cheon, a leading animal behaviorist and biologist and emeritus professor at Ewha Womans University. This would mean that, according to him, Evian, the globally recognized French bottled water brand, and Samdasoo, Korea’s famous Jeju volcanic bedrock water, are ultimately no better than Seoul tap water. Choe firmly believes that however pure the original source may be, water cannot help but lose its freshness after spending months in plastic bottles during distribution. From an environmental standpoint, the message is a welcome one. The bottled water industry is among the world’s major polluters, producing a gargantuan volume of plastic waste, and Korea is no exception. Greenpeace says more than 5.6 billion bottles of mineral water were used in the country in 2020 alone. Assuming each bottle measures 10 centimeters in diameter, lined up end to end, they would circle the Earth 14 times. Bottled water harms the environment not only after it is consumed, but also in the ver

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