Mrs. Kim Hye-kyung Offers All Teams a Trip to South Korea at Philippine K-Pop Festival

Mrs. Kim Hye-kyung, wife of President Lee Jae-myeong who is on an official state visit to the Philippines, attended a K-Pop festival in Manila and offered every participating team the opportunity to visit South Korea.

Mrs. Kim attended the “K-Pop Festival for All” held at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila on the morning of the 4th. This event is a K-Pop cover dance competition organized by the Korean Cultural Center and has been running since 2023. On that day, four teams that passed the online qualifiers performed in the final round. As the competing teams sang on stage, fans filling the 990-seat audience stood up and joined in singing along to BLACKPINK, BTS, and aespa’s songs, further intensifying the excitement.

According to the judgment of renowned dancer Rie Kim, who served as a judge, “Paradigm” was named the winning team. In addition to the prize money, they received round-trip flight tickets to South Korea and training opportunities at Seoul’s dance studio, “1 Million Studio.”

Immediately after the award ceremony, Mrs. Kim stepped onto the stage and said, “I saw data showing that the Philippines has the highest level of interest in Korean culture,” adding, “After feeling the enthusiasm here, I truly believe that statement is correct.” She also remarked, “I heard that many people learn Korean as a foreign language, and it’s amazing and inspiring that their love for Korean culture extends to learning the language itself.”

She then pointed out, “With so many excellent teams like these, how can we only give one team the chance to go to South Korea? It’s simply unreasonable.” She immediately suggested to the organizers, “What if we give all teams the opportunity to visit South Korea?” The contestants on stage hugged each other to share their joy, while applause and cheers erupted from the audience.

Afterward, Mrs. Kim took group photos with the participants, agreed to take selfies with fans, and encouraged the volunteers who worked hard for the event. This move is seen as part of her ongoing diplomatic efforts using culture and tourism as bridges, following her discussions on Jeju sea woman tourism cooperation during her visit to Singapore and her interactions with Philippine First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos there.