Koreans in islands helping out homeland

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Chong Nam Kim at his Yakiniku Nok Won restaurant. "We are happy to give them to the government," he said. "We know the Korean economy is worse."

They are donating gold and cash to Seoul to bail the country out of debt

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

Five years ago, a Korean dancing group gave Chong Nam Kim a gold key for luck and happiness.

Kim, a Hawaii businessman and now U.S. citizen, gave the key, a gold ring belonging to his 84-year-

old grandmother, and the ring his teen-age son received on his first birthday to the South Korean government.

Kim joined tens of thousands of South Koreans who answered the call to donate or sell gold in a nationwide campaign to raise $57 billion owed to the International Monetary Fund in emergency funds. The country has plunged from the 11th largest economy in the world into financial crisis blamed on heavily indebted businesses.

"We are happy to give them to the government," said Kim, owner of the Yakiniku Nok Won restaurant. "We know the Korean economy is worse."

Kim and many in Hawaii's Korean community are digging into their pockets to send dollars to South Korea.

"We really hurt," said Jennifer Myung Hui Kim, vice president of the United Korean Society of Hawaii. "I was so proud to be Korean. This really hurts my pride."

Over the holiday season, the society has urged Koreans to send home dollars instead of gifts.

They're also encouraging them to invest in Korean stocks, buy government bonds and open foreign currency accounts there.

Jennifer Kim said the Korean society has asked each household among Hawaii's 50,000 Koreans to send back $100. The amount will be small compared to her country's debt, "but it's a patriotic gesture."

But no one is holding fund-raisers here because Hawaii's economy is hurting too much, she said. Anyone working with Korean tourism here has been especially hard-hit.

Korean Air is offering eight low-price tours to South Korea this year "in order to support the Korean economy," said Maeng Ryung Kim, Korean Air Honolulu regional manager. The first group of 50 tourists is planned for March.

"Dollar power is so strong, hotels are so cheap, it's a good opportunity to visit Korea," he said.

Chong Nam Kim, who moved to Hawaii in 1972 and is now a U.S. citizen, said Koreans have tightened their belts and are taking public transportation or riding bicycles instead of buying gas for their cars.

"Everybody's saying there's no more traffic," he said about the usually congested Seoul.

He was 9 when the Korean War broke out and he's seen the suffering in his country. He's also seen the hard work that made South Korea so successful, and he's counting on that to pull up the country within a year.

"We're working hard together. We know our country and people will take care of the situation."