'Bookworm' Mayor Park Won-soon and 'Wilderness Explorer' Kim Kyung-soo, Director of Gangbuk-gu Village Cooperation Division, Share a Conversation?

Mayor Park encouraged and engaged in a lengthy conversation with Kim Kyung-soo, Director of Village Cooperation at Gangbuk-gu Office and author of "I Still Don't Want to Stop," who documented a 6,400km Sahara Desert to Mongolian Gobi Desert expedition as an "Oji Explorer," during the '2020 Seoul New Year's Meeting' held at Sejong Center on the morning of the 2nd.

Mayor Park Won-soon of Seoul and Director Kim Kyung-soo of Gangbuk-gu

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] On the morning of the 2nd at 10 a.m., Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon held the '2020 Seoul New Year's Meeting' at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, where he engaged in a lengthy conversation with Kim Kyung-soo, Director of the Village Cooperation Division at Gangbuk-gu Office, who recorded a 6,400km expedition from the Sahara Desert to the Mongolian Gobi Desert as an 'explorer' and authored the book 'I Still Don't Want to Stop.'

At the event, Mayor Park was introduced to Kim’s fourth adventure story book by Park Kyum-soo, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, at the 'Shared Book Corner' set up by 25 district mayors on the first floor of Sejong Center, and personally encouraged Kim.

Park Kyum-soo, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, introduced the book as written by Kim himself and introduced Kim, who was standing nearby, to Mayor Park.

Mayor Park then asked Kim, “How did you come to go to such harsh places like deserts?” Upon hearing Kim say, “I carried my own food and clothes in a backpack and ran like a marathon,” Mayor Park praised him, saying, “It must be hard just to walk, so that’s impressive.”

Mayor Park also praised, “It is a good phenomenon that more public officials are reading books, and it is excellent that Kim, like you, published a book based on direct experience.”

Mayor Park said, “I hope more Seoul city officials read and publish books.”

He continued, expressing his wish to give sabbaticals to Seoul city officials with 10, 20, or 30 years of service, but since it is not allowed by law, “we are giving 10, 20, or 30 days of vacation,” and added, “I hope public officials make good use of their sabbatical days.”

Being almost a 'book lover' himself, Mayor Park showed keen interest as he toured the shared book corners presented by the 25 district mayors at the New Year's meeting.

In particular, Mayor Park asked Park Kyum-soo of Gangbuk-gu, Lee Sung of Guro-gu, and Kim Mi-kyung of Eunpyeong-gu why they published their books, emphasizing, “I hope Seoul becomes a city of humanities that reads books.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.