[Public Voices]Korean Children Who Erased 15 Minutes of the Korea-U.S. Presidents

U.S. President Joe Biden and the First Lady are seen interacting with children from the New Jersey Korean School choir, who performed a choir at the Korea-U.S. summit held at the White House on the 26th. Photo by President Biden's Twitter

At the end of last March, I received a call from a certain location in the White House. They requested quietly assisting in inviting the New Jersey Korean School Children's Choir to the state visit welcome event for the President of the Republic of Korea. I immediately contacted the choir director and made the event happen.

One month later, on the morning of the 26th, starting at 10 a.m., the official welcome ceremony for President Yoon Suk-yeol was held at the White House. About 50 Korean children dressed in hanbok lined up on the balcony stairs on the second floor of the White House main building. Just before the entrance of the presidents and their spouses of both countries, the children's choir sang "Arirang" and the musical "Annie" insert song "Tomorrow," then entered the White House to prepare for the scheduled 45-second choir performance. I was also waiting beside the choir with a staff member from the White House National Security Council (NSC).

As the door connecting the White House main hall lobby and balcony opened and the presidents and their spouses of both Korea and the U.S. entered, "Arirang" echoed with piano accompaniment and the children's voices. However, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden stood firmly in front of the choir. Following President Biden, President Yoon and his spouse also stood up. When "Arirang" ended, Jill Biden was the first to exclaim and applaud. President Biden and President Yoon and his spouse also applauded. The Bidens held the children's hands and put their arms around their shoulders, mingling with them. The quick-witted presidential chief of staff approached the president and said, "Shall we listen to one more song from the children?" The two presidents and their spouses stood side by side, and the choir sang "Tomorrow."

What was planned to last at most one minute had already passed eight minutes. Unlike the restless close aides of the president, President Biden continued conversing with the children. When one child quietly answered that they came from New Jersey in response to Biden's question about where they were from, Biden said, "I come from Delaware, next to New Jersey, and Jill Biden is from New Jersey as well. We came from the same direction," and asked if they could come to the White House again. Mrs. Biden asked Choir Director Hwang Hyun-joo which school the choir belonged to. Director Hwang replied that they were students who took classes once a week on weekends and had submitted absence notices to their school to welcome their homeland's president. When Director Hwang, a public school teacher, said, "Yesterday evening was a day to meet parents, so I had a video conference from the hotel," Mrs. Biden empathized, saying, "I was also very busy grading students' midterms, so I came down here after doing that work in my office." The time expected to be about one minute had already passed 15 minutes. When the aides tried to take the children out, President Biden called them back and took commemorative photos together with the two presidents and their spouses.

The White House requested this private event to be kept confidential, but a few hours later, President Biden and Jill Biden posted photos on Twitter as if competing, making it known to the public. There have been Korean Americans in high positions at the White House before. However, the Korean Americans currently working at the White House have a different affection and responsibility toward the Korean community than before. Their identity as members of the Korean community is clear. Thinking of their own childhoods, they conceived the idea of bringing Korean children into the White House.

A Korean American young man in his twenties at the White House, who played a key role in this event, showed me that he wore a modified hanbok vest under his suit on the day the Korean president was a guest at the White House because it was so special to him. He is the shining hope of Korean Americans.

Kim Dong-seok, Representative of the Korean American Voters Alliance

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