Significant increase in visits and volunteer services for individual residents
The companion’s first unusual cover since last June
On the 22nd, First Lady Kim Gun-hee is moving to deliver a “Hope Box” containing groceries to a small room in Namdaemun, Seoul. Provided by the Office of the President
First Lady Kim Kun-hee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol, is making a sweeping move at the end of the year. In addition to diplomatic programs with foreign guests and official events with married couples, individual actions, visits to livelihood places and volunteer activities have been significantly increased. On the 22nd, it was unusual for reporters to accompany reporters to the presidential office.
First Lady Kim participated in the “Visiting Christmas, Sharing Hope Box” event, which delivered a “Hope Box” containing groceries to families residing in a small room in Namdaemun, Seoul. It is an event conceived by the Korean military department of the Salvation Army and sponsored by Good People International to spread the culture of sharing.
In her greeting, Ms. Kim encouraged the officials, saying, “I am deeply grateful that I have put in a lot of effort to share the warmth with my neighbors in need and that they are still active and volunteering together.” Ms. Kim continued, “Please work together so that these activities can continue to be profoundly influential in our society.”
He then found the families residing in a small room and delivered the Hope Box himself. The president’s office reported that Ms. Kim said at this meeting, “I will continue to support the government and local communities more carefully so that we can live a warmer and less uncomfortable life in the future.”
This event was accompanied by a full reporter (representative coverage) from the presidential office press corps. Meanwhile, most of Kim’s solo programs were kept private and then posthumously disclosed via written briefings. It was the last time an entire body of press was covered like this day when I visited Madrid, Spain last June.
Ms. Kim has recently significantly expanded the disclosure scope of her activities. This month, first lady Kim’s actions were reported by the presidential office 13 times. Starting from the national prayer breakfast with President Yoon on the 5th, Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s state dinner and tea party, the national football team dinner, the Olympic team functional lunch, the opening ceremony of the Win- Winter Festival, thanksgiving from Seocho-dong’s sister-in-law and talks about young people and a conversation with a future scientist. Four separate programs took place on this day, including volunteering at a small room village, volunteering at the Saemaul Undong Center, an event for single parents, and visiting children in Cambodia.
It is a different atmosphere from the one that refrained from public activities as various controversies arose from the presidential election process to the beginning of the inauguration. A presidential office official said in a phone call, “The program has been expanded to coincide with the end of the year, as more and more people are caring for socially disadvantaged and marginalized neighbors.”
