During my military service in a previous life, I once saw wild boars greedily emptying food waste bins—those notorious army slop buckets—in the deep mountains of Gangwon Province. These wild boars, which lived nearby in the mountains, were shockingly large and reeked horribly.

I was struck by the sight of their bulky bodies, heads buried in the plastic tubs, gnawing on the slop with their yellowed teeth. The image stirred a deep, instinctual disgust within me.

Eventually, I got used to them and they became something of a cute mascot for the unit. The area even turned into a kind …