18 foreigners named honorary Seoul citizens

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, center, poses with 18 foreigners after giving them honorary citizenship of Seoul at the City Hall, central Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

By Bahk Eun-ji

Eighteen foreigners from 14 countries were designated honorary citizens of Seoul, Wednesday, for their contributions in bridging the gap between Seoul and their home countries.

The honorary citizens were mostly those who have been dedicated to increasing understanding of multicultural families and peaceful coexistence in society, the city government said.

Of them is Edeltrud Kim, a native of Germany, who first came to Korea in 1975 with her late husband. She established the SAM (School Age Mentoring) Community Child Center in 2003 with him to support children from underprivileged families.

In her acceptance speech during the citizenship award ceremony, she said she hopes to dedicate herself to the city more.

Le Nguyen Minh Phuong, from Vietnam, has been working on cultural exchange between his host and home countries by hosting the KBS World Radio and Vietnamese VTV channel. Anna Kusumach, from Indonesia, has been working as an Indonesian language lecturer at elementary schools and libraries.

A Colombian writer, Andres Felipe Solano, wrote a novel titled "Korea: Notes from the Tightrope" in Spanish and won a Colombian Narrative Library Award in 2016, helping promote Korea to South America.

Popular TV personalities ― Sujan Shakya from Nepal, Christian Burgos from Mexico, Mark Tetto from the United States and Fabien Corbineau from France ― were also honored.

During the ceremony at Seoul City Hall, Mayor Park Won-soon said he regards foreigners who visit or live in Seoul as a precious addition to the capital's 10 million citizens.

"Seoul City will keep working to improve foreign residents' livelihoods," Park said.

The city government has offered honorary citizenship to non-Koreans who have demonstrated their dedication to the city each year since 1958. Including the 18, 853 people from 98 countries have been honored.

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