[dunham]

I'm guessing it was common in Korea before chilis were brought back from the americas.

[neom]

Chilli was introduced to Kimchi during the Imjin War. The Portuguese had brought them to Japan perviously, as far as I've seen all kimchi recipe prior to that is only garlic heavy, I like that style of kimchi better personally.

[bobthepanda]

my understanding of the development was that chili was used to cut the amount of salt, which wasn't cheap to produce