Olympic tickets offer chance to dine with Moon

People who buy tickets to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics could win a dinner with President Moon Jae-in, the Blue House announced Wednesday.

“What would you say if I told you right now that you could win a dinner with the president?” said presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun in a regular Facebook Live corner of the Blue House on Wednesday morning.

“All you have to do is buy your ticket to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and upload a photo with the ticket at hellopyeongchang.com, and we will invite some 20 selected at random to a dinner with President Moon.”

Park added that the invitees will also be given the so-called “Moon Jae-in watch,” a souvenir watch usually given to visitors of Moon.

The watch, which has a simple design with a beige leather strap and an inscription of the president’s signature, became so popular among collectors and Moon’s fans that the price rose to some 2 million won ($1,811) on an online mall of secondhand goods.

The campaign to win a dinner with Moon runs until Dec. 8.

“We hope it gets more people to participate in PyeongChang,” Park said. The post received some 670 likes by Wednesday afternoon.

The Blue House did not specify where the dinner will take place, but said it will either take place during the Olympics, which runs from Feb. 2 to 25 at Pyeongchang in Gangwon, or before the Olympics at the Blue House or another location.

Enlisting a dinner with a public figure or celebrity as an item on auction is not uncommon in charity galas abroad, like “Lunch with Warren Buffett.” This year the winner bid $2.68 million, and last year $3.46 million.

The profits from the lunch with Buffett go to Glide, a charity center in San Francisco that helps the homeless, people with drug addiction and victims of abuse. The event has been held every year since 1999.

BY HEO JIN, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]