King Charles paid a visit to New Malden Koreatown yesterday, as part of his preparation for the State Visit of South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol later this month. It wasn’t the pleasantest of days for it, but despite the grim weather enthusiastic crowds lined the High Street to welcome him.
Centre of the action was the Methodist Church, where the King was greeted by Ambassador Yoon Yeocheol and Kingston Mayor Diane White together with representatives of the Korean communities, both South and North, including Elizabeth Park, LibDem councillor for Old Malden Ward and Timothy Cho, a prominent North Korean escapee. Also present were representatives of the Korean residanets’ Association and Korean Restaurants and Supermarkets Association, who had prepared some palace-style food for the occasion.
The King was treated to a performance of 아름다운 나라 (Beautiful Country) by the London Hummingbird Choir – an amateur choir former by members of the Korean community in late 2021 – while Suyoung Park performed a fan dance.
The King also spent time with KBCE’s Justina Jang, viewing a taster of the Ties Through Time exhibition which opens in Kingston today, with a parallel exhibition opening in Seoul in a few days’ time. The King signed the visitors’ book for both exhibitions: Jang will be taking the second visitors book to Korea this weekend for the opening of the exhibition in Seoul.
Keen Royal-watchers may remember the problems the King had with the fountain pens provided for his use when signing various official documents on his first whistle-stop tour of the Kingdom after the late Queen’s passing. Justina had prepared three pens for this occasion, just in case, but the King had brought his own. Justina had also prepared an advance birthday present for the King (it will be his 75th birthday on 14 November): a recipe book that was one of the outputs of the KBCE’s Kimjang Project, and some specially prepared, extra-mild kimchi. As has been reported elsewhere, the King wondered about the spice levels, a joke that would later be picked up in the marketing for KBCE’s Kimchi Day celebrations: “We promise it won’t blow your head off”, and “Kimchi won’t blow your head off but might blow your mind!”
Justina then escorted the King to the nextdoor Cake and Bing Soo cafe, where he was given an Earl Grey-flavoured birthday cake and he spoke to some of the younger Korean residents. He left New Malden after paying his respects at the war memorial across the road.
President Yoon arrives in the UK on 20 November.
Links:
- Accounts in Daily Mail | Daily Telegraph | BBC | Kingston Courier | royal.uk | Kingston website
- The Ties Through Time exhibition
- Video from the Daily Mail website:
https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1722309750136701064