A survey of consumers' awareness and attitudes about food biotechnology was conducted during May through August of 2001 with a random sample of 750 Korean consumers. More than 70% of the respondents was exposed to some informations related to genetically modified (GM) foods. The greatest benefit of the development of GM foods was thought to be the remedy for the food shortage in the future. More than 90% of Korean consumers wanted GM foods labeled. About 20% of the respondents would buy GM foods voluntarily, whereas over 50% would not until they found out more. More consumers responded that they would not buy herbicide-tolerant GM soybean but buy vitamin-enriched GM soybean. It seemed to be that many Korean consumers do not make decisions of acceptance or rejection of GM foods not on the basis of biotechnology but on the basis of the words) used to describe the products, such as herbicide and vitamin. Only 4% of Korean consumers responded that GM foods were the greatest safety-threatening factor of Korean foods and that the most interested information on food labels was whether the food was produced by biotechnology.