For a business owner, it goes without saying that having the President of the Republic visit your business is an exceptional honor. But if that visit falls on the president’s birthday, it’s even more so! That’s exactly what happened in Daejeon to Amata Kim and Lim Young Jin or Fedes, two Korean entrepreneurs, whose bakery Sung Sim Dang is part of the Economy of Communion.
Moon Jae-in, who has been South Korean president since May 2017, is known in the West for starting the peace process with North Korea after almost 70 years since the start of the Cold War. He celebrated his 70th birthday with a visit to Sung Sim Dang, buying a magnificent cake and was thus able to get to know the company’s history and reality up close. His Instagram post got more than 76,000 likes in just a few hours.
“I was pleasantly surprised today to celebrate my birthday at the Sung Sim Dang bakery in Daejeon,” he exclaimed. “During the war in 1950 my father and the bakery’s founder (Fedes’ father) were on the same evacuation ship, Victoria, fleeing North Korea. Remembering this moment of history is for us something we hold dear and precious. My birthday is a day like any other, and today I am recharged with new strength from the best wishes of so many. Thank you!”
The event resonated widely in the media, partly because Sung Sim Dang is universally recognized and highly valued throughout the city of Daejeon.