A South Korean bank is sending a group of its single female employees on a blind date trip to North Korea, hoping that romance will make them happy at the office.
Hana Bank is trying to fix up 20 of its employees between the ages of 29 and 33 with 20 single South Korean men.
Hana Bank will pay half the fare for its employees for the two-day trip this weekend to a mountain resort in North Korea.
Hana, a main unit of the country’s No. 4 banking group Hana Financial Group, two years ago set up what it calls a “full life service” for its employees that includes subsidizing employees who enroll with matchmaking services.
This story was listed under the “Odd News” section on yahoo.com. Nothing about this strikes me as odd though. Koreans are big on family. There’s no coincident that this article was published a day after one of the biggest family holidays in Korea. If you are unmarried and of marrying age, like most adults, you dread family gatherings. My coworker remarked that her holiday was stressful because she was surrounded by relatives posing the usual marriage questions. When are you getting married? Why are taking so long? So seeing this article struck me as timely and nothing more. How many Korean mothers will read this article and consider their own children? I am just thankful that I have no one pressuring me about marriage. In a way, that could be considered sad.