Pres. Park spotted at market with traditional Korean purse

President Park Geun-hye is known to use a Korean-made purse that costs just 4,000 won (3.60 U.S. dollars). She showed the light purple accessory to pay cash when buying fruits and vegetables at NongHyup Hanaro Mart in southern Seoul’s Yangjae district Wednesday.

The purse had a small label reading "Sosandang" on the edge. Given the president`s reluctance to disclose the brand of products she uses, her purse is believed to have been exposed by accident.

Sosandang is the brand of a Korean quilt artifact company run by handicraft master Kim So-ae, 81, and her daughter. It sells products at major duty-free shops at Incheon International Airport, Seoul, the Korean National Folk Museum and a store at the National Assembly run by the Culture Foundation of National Museum of Korea.

CEO Park Yoon-joo, who learned that President Park uses her brand through a phone interview with The Dong-A Ilbo, said, “I`ve never met President Park,” adding, “I`m really happy and curious to know how she acquired the product.”

President Park’s long purse is a discontinued model that was last sold two years for 4,000 won. “Products sold these days have no label on the edges,” she said, adding, “Considering that the original butterfly-shaped pattern was taken off already, she must have used the product for a long time,”the CEO said.

A native of Songjin of North Hamgyong Province in North Korea, Kim escaped to Busan during the Korean War and started making quilted artifacts while running a small handicraft store in the port city. After moving to Seoul, she operated for nearly 20 years a store on the first floor of Cosmos Department Store in Seoul`s shopping district of Myeong-dong.

Named after Kim’s pen name, Sosodang was established in 2003. Kim persuaded her daughter, who was then a teacher of English, to join her and started running the business together. Most of the purses, cup holders and pouches that comprise the brand’s flagship products cost less than 20,000 won (18 dollars) apiece.

CEO Park said, “We have no choice but to set our prices low due to the influx of cheap Chinese quilted products, but we continue to follow domestic production as principle as part of efforts to pass down Korean tradition.”

This is not the first time for President Park to be seen in public with this particular purse. When she visited Junggok Jeil Market in Seoul’s Gwangjin district ahead of Lunar New Year’s Day Feb. 8 as president-elect, she was seen paying with gift certificates from this purse, though the brand remained unknown at the time.

bright@donga.com