honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 12:20 p.m., Thursday, July 5, 2007

Punchbowl closing for South Korean president's visit

Advertiser Staff

 

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is expected to arrive in Honolulu this afternoon for an overnight stay while on the way home from an International Olympic Committee meeting in Guatemala.

ANDRES LEIGHTON | Associated Press

spacer spacer
The Puowaina Drive entrance to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl — and the cemetery itself — will be closed at noon in preparation for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's scheduled afternoon visit.

Motorists should expect brief delays associated with Roh's motorcade on O'ahu, said Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department.

Yu said the routes Roh's group will travel and the specific times he is expected to travel them are not being made public for security reasons.

Roh is expected to arrive in Honolulu at about 4 p.m. for an overnight stay while on the way home from an International Olympic Committee meeting in Guatemala.

After landing at Hickam Air Force Base Roh will head directly to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl for a wreath laying ceremony that is scheduled for approximately 5 p.m., said Al Joaquin, agent in charge of the Honolulu Secret Service office.

Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, will accompany Roh on his visit to Punchbowl, Joaquin said. He is also expected to meet briefly with invited guests from Honolulu's Korean community while at Punchbowl.

"From there, he will head for his hotel and stay overnight before flying out at 10:30 Friday morning," Joaquin said.

No public appearances are planned during Roh's brief visit here.

Koreans have a long history in Hawai'i.

On Jan. 13, 1903, the first documented group of Korean immigrants to America set foot in the Islands. The SS Gaelic pulled into Honolulu Harbor, delivering 86 men, women and children to the U.S. territory.

About 7,000 other Koreans arrived in the Islands over the following two years, recruited to work on the sugar plantations across Hawai'i.

Among the prominent Korean Americans in Hawai'i are state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim.

Roh visited Guatemala to back his country's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.