(LEAD) Park gives pep talk to Korean residents in Brazil

(ATTN: UPDATES with Park's attendance in fashion show)
By Kim Kwang-tae

SAO PAULO, April 25 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye, on a state visit to Brazil, met with hundreds of South Korean immigrants in the South American country on Saturday and gave them a pep talk, an aide said.

Those who attended the meeting with Park included Shin Hye-ja, a 74-year-old woman who visited Seoul in 1975 along with other South Koreans living abroad. At that time, Park, as a stand-in first lady for her father and president, Park Chung-hee, after her mother was assassinated by a North Korean agent, met Shin.

Also on Saturday, Park attended a fashion show at a hotel that included performances by the boy band SHINee and f(X) and other K-pop stars. The fashion show was part of programs meant to entertain and cheer up the Korean diaspora in Brazil during Park's visit.

About 70 percent of nearly 50,000 Korean immigrants in Brazil work in the fashion industry. The fashion show drew about 700 people, including representatives of Brazilian fan clubs of "Hallyu," or the Korean wave.

South Korean TV shows, films and pop music have gained wide popularity in Brazil and other South American countries in recent years beyond China and Southeast Asian countries.

Park's office said there are about 200 K-pop fan clubs in Brazil.

According to Seoul government officials, 103 South Koreans arrived in Brazil in 1963 as the first group of Korean immigrants.

Park is set to leave for Seoul later in the day, winding up a 12-day South America trip that also took her to Colombia, Peru and Chile.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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