Actor Park Hae-jin returned to Seoul’s shanty town, Guryong Village in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Saturday to do volunteer work with netizens who made hateful comments against him in the past.

It’s his third year volunteering at the village, delivering coal briquettes, daily necessities and donations to over 150 residents there.

Park Hae-jin (OSEN)

“There is something money cannot solely fulfill,” Park said when a local news outlet asked him why he visits the town every year. “When I deliver coal briquettes to residents’ house, I am touched when they smile at me. It’s the warmth that I experience that cannot be fulfilled through money donation.”

Park is aware that there are people who are critical of celebrities volunteering in public for show.


“I understand,” he said. “But when (celebrities) volunteer, people will think of the neglected class for once. If one person becomes interested in them, that’s enough.”

The 32-year-old actor began doing volunteer work with people who posted malicious comments about him, instead of taking legal action against them, in 2013.

Park Hae-jin (OSEN)

Park, who starred in the hit drama “My Love from the Star,” is currently shooting for a new drama, “Cheese in the Trap,” opposite actress Kim Go-eun.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)