Group sends books to overseas ethnic Koreans

A group of book lovers has mailed thousands of books to overseas ethnic Koreans.

The Campaign Center of the Book Supplying for Overseas Koreans held a ceremony at its warehouse in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, to mail 6,000 books to Kyrgyzstan, and 5,000 each to Massachusetts in the U.S., Manila in the Philippines and Singapore.

The center plans to hold a book donation ceremony in Kyrgyzstan around Sept. 5. when they are expected to arrive.

The ceremony was attended by Sohn Suck-woo, president of the center, former Defense Minister Lee Sang-hoon, former Culture Minister Lee Min-sup, Hyundai Shipping CEO Albert Cho and others.

The center also will deliver 15,000 books to the 3rd Corps of the Korean Army.

It has sent 700,000 books to ethnic Koreans living in 53 countries since 2001, together with compact discs on Korean culture, various stationary items and footballs.

“The books we send will help overseas ethnic Koreans find their identity as well as heighten knowledge of their culture,” said Sohn in the book-mailing ceremony.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)