Songpa-gu district chief Park Choon-hee presented a 30 million won ($29,000) check to Paraguayan Ambassador to South Korea Ceferino Valdez for flood relief in the South American country’s capital city of Asuncion at Park’s office in Seoul on Tuesday.

Torrential rains caused the worst floods in the history of Paraguay at the end of June, displacing 300,000 people. Asuncion was the most affected area, particularly low-lying areas near the Paraguay River, with more than 75,000 people forced to flee to temporary shelters on higher ground. 

Thousands in urban and rural areas in neighboring Argentina and Brazil were also affected by flooding from the rain-swollen Parana River.

Songpa-gu and Asuncion established “city sisterhood” ties in February 1994 and have continued cooperative exchanges for 20 years.

“We hope the citizens of our international sister city Asuncion will quickly recover from the damage,” Park said at the donation ceremony. “Through humanitarian help, when it is needed, we will continue to maintain close ties between our two cities.”

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes is to visit South Korea in August, raising the possibility of a meetup between the president and Songpa-gu entrepreneurs.

In addition to Songpa-gu’s Park and Ambassador Valdez, other VIPs in attendance were Kim Mi-ae, a Songpa-gu ambassador of tourism; Kim Mun-il, president of the Songpa-gu commercial association; Han Dong-il, president of Songpa-gu Integrated Defense Council; Jung Hae-soo, a vice-president of Songpa-gu’s Sports Council; and Bang Byoung-duk, president of Songpa-gu Sports Council for the Disabled.

(ephilip2014@heraldcorp.com)