Gyeongbuk Province Selects Four Top Artisans of the Year

Support for Technology Incentives and Art Exhibitions Over 5 Years

Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] Gyeongsangbuk-do awarded certification plaques on the 13th to four individuals selected as the top artisans of Gyeongsangbuk-do in 2021.

Since 2012, the province has held an annual contest to select the top artisans, supporting skilled technicians to take pride and contribute to technological and industrial development.

Those selected as top artisans receive a monthly technology incentive of 300,000 KRW for five years and support for exhibitions of their works.

The four top artisans of this year were finally selected after a three-month process following the project announcement in August, including document screening, on-site evaluation, and interviews conducted by the Korea Industrial Human Resources Corporation and Korea’s master craftsmen.

The honorees are Kim Oe-jun in ceramics, Shin Jae-seok in mechanical maintenance, and Kim Jin-sik and Kim Kyung-cheon in architectural woodworking construction.

The four top masters of Gyeongbuk Province in 2021: Kim Oe-jun, Shin Jae-seok, Kim Jin-sik, and Kim Kyung-chun (from left).

Kim Oe-jun, a master who has won the grand prize twice at the Gyeongbuk Craft Exhibition, developed a ceramic surface crack technique and successfully carried out a technology innovation project led by the Small and Medium Business Administration, enhancing the quality of tea sets and securing a high value-added ceramics market.

Shin Jae-seok has worked at POSCO since 1987 and possesses outstanding mechanical maintenance skills in stainless steel rolling. He has improved workers’ safety by minimizing their access to equipment and is training successors.

Kim Jin-sik has studied carpentry through apprenticeship since 1996, nurturing numerous junior carpenters and cultural heritage repair technicians. He developed construction methods for traditional Korean house walls and a new type of dangol-maki, improving insulation performance and drastically shortening construction periods.

Kim Kyung-cheon, fascinated by traditional Korean houses since childhood, learned skills by visiting master carpenters and is an excellent artisan in architectural construction and cultural heritage restoration. He holds a patent for a windproof structure for traditional Korean house windows, significantly improving resistance to external wind.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, “Following last year, this year Gyeongbuk’s top artisan Tak Young-jun was selected as a master craftsman of Korea in the metal materials manufacturing field,” adding, “I hope they will continue to foster more junior technicians with the best technology not only in Gyeongbuk but throughout Korea.”

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