By Eli Horn
Staff Reporter

SEOUL- Ji-won Han and Yoon-mi Ko, two Korean-born women from Southern California, took on the formidable challenge at this year’s Miss Korea Pageant, achieving greater success than either of them had even imagined. In the competition, held in Seoul at the end of May, the two beauties were among the seven finalists who were conferred titles. Early in June, they sat down for an exclusive joint interview with The Korea Times.

The affable and effervescent pair of Ko, 21, a sociology major at UCLA, and Han, a fabric design major at Santa Monica College, finished fourth and seventh respectively out of a field of 63 contestants, with Ko being named as this year’s Miss Galleria and Han winning the title of Miss Hankook Ilbo.

Han, the second of three children, was imbued with an international upbringing at a very early age. Her mother, who was born in England at the time that Ji-won’s grandfather, a former general, served as the Korean ambassador, exposed her children to both Korean and Western culture.

Han plays the piano and enjoys singing and her career ambition is to be a shoe designer and radio producer in Los Angeles, because she wants to give something back to the community that has done so much for her.

Yoon-mi Ko, who is also the middle child in a family with three children, gives a lot of credit to the vibrant Korean community of Los Angeles for her strong cultural identity. "I’ve been brought up with a lot of Korean culture. I’m really active in church. My father also emphasized that Koreans should speak Korean, so I went to Korean schools," she said.

The UCLA junior, whose hobbies include rollerblading and hip-hop dancing, and also plays the guitar, considers herself more Koreanized than Americanized. She is thinking about a diplomatic career.

Neither of the two college students are newcomers to the beauty pageant scene. Both have already competed for several years in the Los Angeles area, most recently in the Korean community’s Miss Southern California pageant in April, which sent its top three finalists to Miss Korea 2001. Ko was the winner and Han was first runner-up.

In early May, they began a three-week training period with their fellow contestants, including both local and ethnic Korean women from the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and Australia.

Although they heard a lot of rumors that they would be treated very badly because they were from the States, and there was supposedly a lot of stealing of makeup and other personal paraphernalia, it turned out to be a far cry from reality. "It wasn’t as if people would rip your clothes. A lot of them were friendly," stressed the Santa Monica freshman. "I’m sure there was some jealousy, and, of course, there was competition among contestants, but nothing to the extent that it showed," underlined the UCLA junior.

"I didn’t think I would make it to the top 15, and when I did, I was too nervous and shocked," admitted Han, "but I’m really happy that I got all the way to the top seven." Ko said, "I knew that I would leave here with a lot of good memories, but I wasn’t expecting to get into the top seven. I was hoping to get into the top 15."

The two college students burst into laughter when they reminisced about how, at one point in the training, they said jokingly to each other, "We’re not going to get anything, we’re making fools out of ourselves, let’s go home."

On a more serious note, the UCLA student said that, "You can’t really grade a person, give points or judge a person on his or her outer beauty, but the main point of Miss Korea is to advertise the country of Korea to the world. In order to do that, I think beauty does matter because that’s the first thing people see, and people show more reaction toward things that appeal to them."

As advice to those considering trying out for Miss Korea in the future, Miss Hankook Ilbo recommended, "Be yourselves, the person who you are, without worrying about things like the shape of your thighs and your eyes."

Miss Galleria said that the pageant is also educational, because you have to work together with your peers as well as learn manners and etiquette that are important for any kind of future job. "It’s a really good experience, it’s not sexist, and you’re not treated badly. If you have confidence, you should just go for it."

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