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| Lim Jong-hyeon | Kim Ki-yong, left, and Ham In-ok |
By Yoon Ja-young
A maintenance engineer who saved a man from drowning in the sea has been presented with a humanitarian award from the LG Foundation. A middle-aged couple who saved five people in a house fire also won the award.
Lim Jong-hyeon, a 35-year-old engineer at LG Electronics' customer service center, was passing by a beach in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Aug. 13. He saw a man swept away by a wave, losing the life belt he was clinging to. Lim immediately jumped into the water, and pulled the man out onto the beach. After sitting exhausted for a while, Lim quietly left.
His heroic deed became known after a vacationer who was at the site noted that he was wearing the LG Electronics uniform, and posted the story on the company's web bulletin board.
"Nobody had the courage to jump into the water except for this one man who did so without any hesitation. After completing the rescue, he was so exhausted that he couldn't even walk. I wonder if he is okay," wrote the witness.
"I grew up near the sea so I know how to swim. I just jumped into the sea, having no time to think whether I should do it or not," Lim said.
"It was not easy though since the man had lost consciousness while the waves were fierce," Lim added.
In the other case Kim Ki-yong and Ham In-ok, a middle-aged couple in Danyang County, North Chungcheong Province, was woken up suddenly at around 1 a.m. Aug. 17 by their dog barking loudly. They saw their neighbor's house was on fire. The couple rushed in their pajamas to the scene with a fire extinguisher, and also called 119, the emergency number for the fire service.
They first woke an elderly couple and helped them evacuate. After hearing that there were more family members left in the house, they went back to help three more leave of the house.
LG Foundation launched the awards in 2015, after LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo decided that those who sacrificed themselves for the nation and society should be compensated, and that businesses should play a role in this. Including Lim, Kim and Ham, a total of 50 people have been given the LG Humanitarian Award.
Among the 50 were 10 marine police, six soldiers, three firefighters and two policemen. In March, a Sri Lankan worker won the award for saving a 90-year-old woman from a house fire, becoming the first foreign recipient of the award. Some of the winners even donated their award money to charity.
"As the number of award recipients rises, I get the feeling that the society is getting better. LG will continue supporting courageous heroes," an LG official said.
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