Indonesia's president and K-pop

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Stephanie Pradnyaparamita

Photo = Oketekno.com

Some of you may have heard about the president of Indonesia Joko Widodo. People usually call him Jokowi. Recently, there was an event in Indonesia called the Korea-Indonesia Business Summit 2017 where Korean conglomerates talked about the possibility of cooperation in the economic sector. 

Of course, I won’t talk about serious or heavy stuff like economics here. Something that was interesting at the event, and it became hot news in Indonesia, was the attendance of pop star Leeteuk from the group Super Junior. Also, the head of Super Junior's agency, S.M. Entertainment, a man named Lee Soo-man, was there, too. Leeteuk, surprisingly, gave a speech and invited Jokowi to attend the next Super Junior concert in Indonesia next year, and he spoke in Indonesian. 

This reminds me of the fact that I actually met him while watching Music Bank in Jakarta in 2013, and he was called “Jokowi ahjussi” by the pop star Kyuhyun who was the emcee for the event. Even though Jokowi attended because he was invited to celebrate 40 years of Indonesia-Korea diplomacy, it was then revealed that Jokowi’s daughter loves Super Junior. I still remember how the other Korean celebrities were really surprised because the governor was watching their performance. Jokowi was governor of Jakarta in 2013 and became president in 2014. 

Despite the fact that he's a fan of heavy metal bands like Metallica, he admits that he also enjoys K-pop and has even seen two Super Junior concerts, including one in Korea with his daughter.

wisdom117@korea.kr

Share this post