A diplomat from the Republic of Korea was in Nome last week. Ohkeum Kwon is Korea’s Deputy Consul General based in Anchorage.
Nome Mayor Richard Beneville described her visit as a “courtesy call.”
“As her role as the representative of the Republic of Korea in Alaska, she feels it important, as does her government, that she get out to visit these smaller towns where there is a population of Koreans,” Beneville explained.
While the mayor’s meeting with the diplomat was mostly small talk, Beneville said they did discuss the opening of the Arctic Ocean to international shipping.
“And that has a big effect on Korea,” Beneville said, “because they’re big trading partners all over the world.”
Korea made its interests in the Arctic clear in 2013 when it gained official observer status at the Arctic Council, and it’s not just commercial shipping in the far north that Korea has a stake in. Beneville said they also talked tourism.
Nome is scheduled to host the Crystal Serenity and its more than 1,000 passengers this summer on its up way up through the Northwest Passage.
“That’s a game changer,” Beneville said. “It’s having a huge effect in Washington D.C., a huge effect in Alaska, certainly, and it’s kind of shifting the idea of cruise routes.”
Port Director Joy Baker joined Beneville, along with Nome’s Chief of Police John Papasadora and Utility Manager John Handeland to welcome the Korean diplomat.
Beneville said besides the small talk about Arctic trade and tourism, Ohkeum Kwon and her assistant went on a short hike, were given a tour of Nome, and ate lunch in a local Korean-owned restaurant.
Emily Russell is the voice of Alaska morning news as Alaska Public Media’s Morning News Host and Producer.
Originally from the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Emily moved to Alaska in 2012. She skied her way through three winters in Fairbanks, earning her Master’s degree in Northern Studies from UAF.
Emily’s career in radio started in Nome in 2015, reporting for KNOM on everything from subsistence whale harvests to housing shortages in Native villages. She then worked for KCAW in Sitka, finally seeing what all the fuss with Southeast, Alaska was all about.
Back on the road system, Emily is looking forward to driving her Subaru around the region to hike, hunt, fish and pick as many berries as possible. When she’s not talking into the mic in the morning, Emily can be found reporting from the peaks above Anchorage to the rivers around Southcentral.
