{"id":378614,"date":"2022-10-28T06:06:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=378614"},"modified":"2022-10-28T06:06:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:06:30","slug":"k-pop-concert-was-a-gift-to-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/k-pop-concert-was-a-gift-to-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018K-pop concert was a gift to the community\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Press conference at the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office yesterday afternoon was held to discuss about the K-pop concert cancellation. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Organizers of the cancelled K-pop concert that was supposed to take place today and tomorrow apologized to the CNMI community yesterday, saying the concert was supposed to be a gift and a gesture of thanks to the community.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing yesterday at the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office conference room, the planned \u201c2022 Saipan Tourism Fanival,\u201d which was supposed to be a free K-pop concert was intended as a gesture of thanks by Hong Kyun Kim, who is the president of P&A Corp. and a businessman of 25 years on Saipan.<\/p>\n

Speaking through a translator and through Ho Joon \u201cJonathan\u201d Joo, Kim said he wanted to have this concert because \u201cI appreciate Saipan for my life. Saipan is my second hometown. I\u2019m a businessman…I want to return to the community because of things I received from this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he feels sorry for the cancellation of the concert, but \u201cSaipan is my second hometown and I want to continuously live here with my family and I want to work together with the local people.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what the mayor\u2019s office role was in the event, Apatang clarified that his office\u2019s role in the event was just logistics. \u201cWe\u2019re here helping with logistics. When they came and asked for help, we did that, kind of guiding them through…but we did not receive any money from anybody…because the way the [Customs and Border Protection] was asking was like we\u2019re getting paid. But we don\u2019t do that here in this office. Coordinating the group from Korea is P&A\u2013 that\u2019s their responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it was a free concert provided by Kim and the P&A group. \u201cThey\u2019re not paying anybody to do it; they put it on the newspaper, it\u2019s free for the community,\u201d Apatang added.<\/p>\n

When the 17 persons who were supposed to perform at the concert arrived on Wednesday, CBP did not allow the group to leave the airport due to not having the proper work visas. The day before, on Tuesday, six members of the stage crew arrived on tourist visas and were allowed to leave the airport.<\/p>\n

When the organizers were asked whether or not they knew the performers had to get work visas, they said they were not aware of that. The organizers said the CBP previously allowed Korean citizens to enter, but this time the performers were not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no idea that the performers had to secure a [work] visa before they come here. Tourists have been coming here left and right from Korea, and I thought they can come in and visit the CNMI,\u201d Apatang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time that they\u2019re going to perform here. \u2026Now the way this group was treated…is so bad. Right now, they\u2019re still in the departure room\u2013 and they\u2019ve been there for [one] day… just imagine that treatment. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cPeople have been asking, are we getting paid or not? We\u2019re not getting any money out of these people, not the mayor\u2019s office. We\u2019re just helping with the logistics. Mr. Kim of the P&A is the one who coordinated [with his] good heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was said that along with some South Korean agencies, Kim paid some of the expenses for the event, along with the South Korean government and other South Korean sponsors, but that the local CNMI government paid no expense.<\/p>\n

When asked whether the artists were paid to perform here, the organizers said they were not.<\/p>\n

Apatang added that \u201cmaybe [CBP] thought the performers are getting paid to come in and they have to probably declare whatever we\u2019re going to get\u2014but it\u2019s free. Mr. Kim, from the goodness of his heart, he\u2019s always working with us with the student exchange program.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if the mayor had authority to request a waiver with CBP to allow the performance to continue because it was a nonprofit event, Apatang said it was too late as the performers were already awaiting their flight home. The group was scheduled to leave yesterday at 4pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizers of the cancelled K-pop concert that was supposed to take place today and tomorrow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":378617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}