Across the road from the arena, where the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea will be held in a year, dead fish dangle from a wooden frame outside Lee Yong-oon's shop.

Most venues for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games are virtually finished and the organizers are about to launch a domestic and international marketing blitz, touting Korean technology, culture and food as they seek to persuade sports fans from around the world to make the journey to northeast Asia.

Lee, though, has his doubts. Dried pollock is a specialty of the area, but he thinks Westerners would find his signature product "a bit hard to eat". He is not planning to increase production for next winter, he said, despite his prime retail location and a chance to attract thousands of potential customers.