Gim (Korean: 김), also romanized as kim,[1] is a generic term for a group of edible seaweeds dried to be used as an ingredient in Korean cuisine, consisting of various species in the genera Pyropia and Porphyra, including P. tenera, P. yezoensis, P. suborbiculata, P. pseudolinearis, P. dentata, and P.

[2] Along with wakame and sweet kelp, gim is one of the most widely cultivated and consumed types of seaweed in Korea.

Gim also can be eaten without rice by roasting with sesame oil or frying and cutting it to make side dishes (banchan) such as bugak.

[8] In the record, the geographical survey conducted during the regime of the King Sejong the Great described gim as the representative product of Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, and Jeolla provinces.

[9][10][11] The record showed how King Seonjo was urged to sooth the hardship of the country's eastern coastal people who were required to produce and submit gim as a royal offering.

This led many people to glue a piece of gim on a frame using saliva or other means to fit the size.

King Jeongjo, citing that such practice was bad for hygiene, firmly warned the governors of the provinces to not enforce specific offering sizes for gim.

[15][16] In Seonghosaseol  [ko] (Korean: 성호사설; Hanja: 星湖僿說), the encyclopedia written by the Joseon scholar Yi Ik who lived from 1681 to 1764, the author described that gim, reddish algae growing on the rocks of sea, was processed into a sheet.

[21] One version tells the story of an old lady in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province who discovered a log covered in gim floating down the Seomjin River.

Yeoik's story takes place on Taein Island which is located in the mouth of Seomjin River in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, during the reign of King Injo (1623–1649).

[21] Early cultivation methods using bamboo or oak sticks were eventually replaced by newer methods that utilized nets,[21][22] developed in the 19th century by a fish harvester who was inspired by gim that grew naturally on fish fences installed in the tidal waters of Wando, South Jeolla Province.

[28] However, due to increases in sea temperature, gim can now be cultivated further north and has spread to the Hoseo region in central South Korea.

The number of farms that use the rack method has been declining due to high production costs, low cultivation yields, increasing water temperatures caused by global warming and aging fishing village populations.