This article defines the characteristics of Korean vegetarianism by tracing the changes in the core motives revealed in the historical development of the vegetarian movement that started in the West. We further explore and compare the limitations of the vegetarian movement conceived in the West with the essential values, ‘How can Korean vegetarian culture gain the upper hand?’. Our results indicate that the sequential changes of the motives inherent to the flow of the modern vegetarian movement were , , and . This settled the transition from ‘vegetarianism as an ideological form’ to ‘vegetarianism as a lifestyle’, making it a more becoming way of life. However, along with the spread of ‘vegetarian lifestyle as a form of life’, commercial vegetarianism, which overshadows the essential value of vegetarianism, continued to flourish due to the modern capitalist industrial system. To curb commercialization, the necessity arose to establish a new vegetarian diet with a propensity towards an ‘ecological-environmental point of view’. Thus, in order to establish the term and concept of a vegetarian diet for Korean vegetarian characteristics, we propose the formation of a vegetarian term and concept suitable for the Korean vegetarian culture.