Kim Yu-na’s father-in-law: “Our father-son relationship are on the verge of breaking down, due to the excessive attention”
Pastor Ko Kyung-soo, the father-in-law of “Figure Skating Queen” Kim Yu-na, prepared a special festival in Daegu and spent time together with migrants to celebrate Chuseok in Leegukman-ri.
Pastor Ko Kyung-soo of the Daegu Peace Church attended the 2022 Chuseok Festival with the migrants held at Keimyung Culture University Gymnasium in Sindang-dong, Dalseo-gu, Daegu on the afternoon of Sep 11th.
Hosted by the Daegu Migrant Mission Center and co-hosted by the Daegu Peace Church, the Daegu Vietnamese Church, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Association, and the Philippine Citizens’ Association, more than 800 people attended the festival, including migrant workers who could not return to their country and hometown families and had to celebrate Chuseok in Korea.
Before the start of the main event, the host briefly handed over the microphone to Pastor Ko Kyung-soo without any special introduction.
Pastor Ko Kyung-soo made a heart shape with his fingers toward the audience and shouted “I love you” twice in a loud voice. Migrants who attended the festival also responded.
Pastor Ko said, “I bless God to take care of your life abroad, to make you safe, to help you overcome pain and to make you happy.”
“We can’t cry every day and live in pain. We have the right to be comforted, to be joyful, to sing, to be happy. I hope you sing the song of hope,” he said, comforting the migrants.
The Migrant Chuseok Festival is designed to recharge and comfort the migrants living in Korea who are suffering from various difficulties.
The festival, which marks its 14th anniversary this year, was held again to mark the Chuseok holiday after being postponed for three years due to the pandemic.
As this is the first Chuseok festival for migrants held in three years, individuals from Keimyung Culture University, local churches, and lawyers from the Daegu Local Attorney Association participated as sponsors.
Pastor Ko Kyung-soo of the Daegu Peace Church, who is also known as Kim Yu-na‘s prospective father-in-law, leads the Daegu Migrant Mission Center, which provides free consultations on labor, industrial accidents, and human rights problems experienced by migrants in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do, and helps provide them with medical support and shelter.
When the spread of the pandemic in Daegu in 2020 caused a shortage of masks, it was belatedly known that the Church helped those in need by distributing masks and hand sanitizers to the migrants.
Pastor Ko, who stayed at the venue for about two hours and spent the Chuseok festival with the migrants, clapped his hands along to the stage performances and took pictures with his phone.
Pastor Ko Kyung-soo met News 1 reporters outside of the venue and said, “The migrant Chuseok festival has celebrated its 14th anniversary,” adding, “I hope migrants who have sufered from a gloomy and difficult time will recharge their courage and happiness through the festival after 3 years living with the pandemic.”
When asked about his sons Ko Woo-rim and Kim Yu-na, who are about to get married in October, he waved his hands and said, “I will answer after the wedding ceremony…I asked for your understanding.”
He said, “What I said to the media before has spread so much that our father-son relationship was about to go wrong before the wedding,” and left after adding, “It is difficult to answer anything now because of the excessive public interest related to them.”
The festival was followed by a variety of activities, including traditional Korean pungmul performances, Filipino traditional dance performances, singing contests, large ball moving and limbo recreation, dance performances, and invitation performances by popular Vietnamese singer Khanh Phuong.
Source: insight
