President Park encouraged underprivileged youth for Korean Thanksgiving Day

Park visited Rainbow Youth Center on 4 last month. The center is supporting underprivileged youth as well as North Korean refugees and multi-cultural people. This visit was to encourage them on the occasion of Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving Day). Park had a good time with the youth by participating in Rainbow Golden Bell and listened to their opinions on using various programmes such as career exploration, language & technical education and consulting, as well as the process of being settled down in South Korea. Park particularly paid attention to the stories of Geong who escaped North Korea in 2002 and is doing volunteer work while studying cooking at Daelim University, of Yang who escaped North Korea alone in 2011 and wants to be a proud mom for her one year old son, and of Whang who came to South Korea from Kazakhstan in 2012 and is planning to study social welfare at Pyeongtaek University next year though her Korean is not very good at the moment. Park also tasted a drink made by a North Korean refugee student whose dream is to be a barista. Rainbow Youth Center is an organization for underprivileged youth as well as North Korean refugees and multi-cultural people. They support everything that is needed for them from psychological stability to adapting oneself to new circumstances. They are running programmes such as 'Rainbow School' which teaches Korean language, 'Rainbow Job' which educates about future career, and 'Datalk Datalk Small Group' which is for self development and emotional development.

President Park visited Dapsipli Hyundai Market for Korean Thanksgiving Day

Park visited Dapsipli Hyundai Market in Dongdaemun district, Seoul on 5 last month to encourage the marketeers and bought herself ritual foods for Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving Day). The market opened in 1978 and has been playing the leading role for local market with their 100 stores. The are well known among residents and students of 16 universities nearby for providing fresh fruits, Korean beef, the small intestines of cattle and dumplings. The market has been introduced on TV but is having difficulty as the sales are decreasing due to weak domestic demand. This visit is part of boosting the lives of low-income people and Park cheered them up, checked on the price of goods and encouraged people to use traditional markets. Park bought lettuce, paprika, chestnut and cherry tomato and tasted Jeon(Korean pancake) and Songpyeon(half-moon shaped rice cake). Park asked the marketeers "how is your business going?" and encouraged them "let us overcome this hardship together." In accordance with Park's campaign pledge, the government is planning to support alley and traditional markets by increasing the small business promotion fund to 2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) from 1.3 trillion won. They will also draw up a measure for promoting unique traditional market through 1 market, 1 distinct feature development around National Excellent Market Expo at the end of October. In addition, they will encourage the less competitive markets through education, consulting and marketing. The markets which the president has visited showed 10% to 200% sales increase. A restaurant in Seomun Market, Cheonju which the president tasted Samgyeopsal(roasted pork belly) showed 300% sales increase. Experts explained the phenomenon by attributing it to president's visit which boosted up market recognition, curiosity of people to meet famous person, as well as marketeers' pride and service mind. The government will do their best that the visit will not be one-off event but to continuously support the markets to be unique and competitive.