By Kim Tae-gyu
AKTOBE, Kazakhstan ― Dmitri Lim cannot speak any Korean but thinks of himself as at least half-Korean and even roots for the national football team of his great grandfather’s country.
The 32-year-old engineer is working for Firm Ada Oil, a joint venture established by two Korean companies, which produces oil in Aktobe, western Kazakhstan.
Firm Ada Oil’s majority stakes are shared by Korea National Oil Corp. and LG International.
``One of the reasons I decided to work for Ada Oil is that it is run by Korean companies,’’ said Lim who has worked for the oil developer for the past one and a half years.
The mechanical engineer, who manages the production of oil, says that he is half-Kazakh and half-Korean as his grandparents and father are ethnic Koreans who moved to the Central Asian nation more than 70 years ago.
``In the late 1930s, the family composed of my grandparents and three children including my father was forced to move to Kazakhstan in line with Stalinist policy,’’ Lim said.
In the 1930s, the Soviet Union compelled more than half a million ethnic Koreans in the Far East to move to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to remove ethnic sentiment, which Joseph Stalin regarded as dangerous in building a socialist state.
Lim’s grandfather resided in a small town in central Kazakhstan and worked for a state-run organization in the transportation segment while his father, also an engineer, moved to the bigger province of Aktobe.
He married a Ukrainian to give a birth to Dmitri, who tied the knot with a Russian. His marriage also has something to do with his ethnicity and appetite for things Korean.
``I met my wife at a Korean restaurant as she worked there and she became my life-time partner nine years ago. She gave birth to a son 15 month ago,’’ said Dmitry who studied both English and engineering at an Aktobe college.
``I will make him learn Korean along with other languages such as Russian, English and Kazak. I am proud of being a descendant of Koreans and my son will be too.’’
Asked about which team he would cheer for in the case Korea plays Kazakhstan in football, he replied it would depend.
``It’s an interesting question. I don’t know but I think that things would be different for each game,’’ he said.
He said his family maintains a constant relationship with 20-plus households composed of ethnic Koreans in Aktobe.