Nvidia team praises Seoul police

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's team has thanked the Seoul police officer who coordinated crowd control during the executive's visit to South Korea on June 5.

Police said June 28 that Madison Huang, Jensen Huang's eldest daughter and Nvidia's senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and Robotics, emailed Yoo Jong-cheol of Seoul's Mapo Police Station after Huang left the country on June 9.

In her message, she thanked officers for their help in managing unexpectedly large crowds and said Jensen Huang was sincerely grateful for their efforts to keep the public safe during his visit.

Authorities had learned that after arriving at Gimpo International Airport on a chartered flight, Huang planned to meet professional gamer Faker, whose real name is Lee Sang-hyeok, at a PC cafe near Hongik University Station. Although Huang was not entitled to an official security detail because he was not a visiting government dignitary, police assigned officers to the area because of concerns that large crowds could gather.

Officers later erected barricades outside a nearby Korean barbecue restaurant where Huang had dinner with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and others over samgyeopsal and soju. When Huang said he wanted to walk to a karaoke venue afterward, police urged him not to, citing safety concerns and the deadly crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district on Oct. 29, 2022. Huang's team agreed, ending the evening instead at a fried chicken restaurant.

After the Hongdae visit, Nvidia representatives thanked Yoo for handling a series of unexpected situations and offered to buy him a meal. Yoo declined, explaining that public officials could not accept such offers. When the Nvidia team asked whether they could at least send him a thank-you note, he gave them his business card with his email address.

Yoo said he did not realize an email had been sent until Nvidia Korea later contacted him. "I wrote back that the Seoul Metropolitan Police are always committed to keeping people safe and that Jensen Huang is welcome back to Seoul anytime," Yoo said.


정서영 기자 cero@donga.com