A love triangle formed between Jeon Hyun-moo and announcer Nam Hyun-jong with Hong Joo-yeon in the middle.
On the afternoon of the 19th, KBS2's entertainment program ‘The Boss's Ears are Donkey Ears’ (hereinafter ‘Sadangui’) featured Lee Soon-sil, Eom Ji-in, and boss Jeong Ji-sun.
On this day’s broadcast, North Korean defector entrepreneur Lee Soon-sil prepared a North Korean cooking show with her staff to sell dumplings. Soon-sil said, “What kind of dumpling do you think this is? The hint is in the sea. The answer is squid sundae. Koreans usually steam only the body, but we eat the legs too,” drawing the audience's attention.
Soon-sil then said, “Now I’m going to try the squid stuffed dumpling. You all sing while I eat,” and had her staff sing, commanding them to “wipe!” in between. Afterward, the Pyongyang dumpling booth had a long line, and Soon-sil’s sales tactics sold out the dumplings.
After everything was done, Soon-sil suggested a company dinner, but all that was left were the dumplings and squid sundae. Soon-sil said, “We North Korean defectors come here lonely and meet our husbands. But I have parents. My in-laws brought cold noodles, and I said, ‘Eat it with soy sauce! Eat it with chili powder!’ and they asked, ‘What does eat mean?’ But in North Korea, we say it like that,” she replied. She added, “‘~께서’ doesn’t exist. There’s no word for elder, we just say old person,” surprising the panelists.
Another defector, Na Min-hee, when asked, “How did you defect?” replied, “I came quite quickly. I defected in 10 hours. I ended up going abroad as a foreign currency-earning laborer. The competition was about 20 to 1, selecting 40 people. But I was lucky because my grandmother's father fought for Kim Il-sung and was a patriotic martyr, so I passed based on my background. Also, you have to be over 155 cm tall. You can’t have tuberculosis, hepatitis, or hemorrhoids, and you prepare for almost a year. I was lucky to be selected and went to a clothing manufacturing factory. The initial salary offered was 500 euros (700,000 won), but when I got there, it was 130 euros (190,000 won). Foreigners get 2,000 euros even if they work slowly. And we were monitored 24 hours a day. Even when we went for a walk, we had to go in groups of four, so I thought it wasn’t living like a human,” she replied.
She continued, “I made an excuse that I was working in a restaurant and the first place I went to was Germany. If you defect to Europe, you are treated as missing, but if you go to the US or Korea, your family is taken hostage, so I wanted to avoid that, but they chased me to Germany. I entered a refugee camp, but someone was chasing me. I called the Korean consulate, which is the safest place, and the next day I went to the Korean consulate. They took me on a plane in just 10 hours. What shocked me was that I didn’t provide any information, but they said, ‘Ms. Na Min-hee, you’ve worked hard,’ and it gave me goosebumps,” she said.
When asked if she had ever dated, defector Kim So-yeon replied, “Of course! I’ve dated Korean, Chinese, and North Korean people. But there were cultural differences. I lived in China for 12 years, and the man paid for all the dates. It was like, ‘Can’t I even feed you?’ There was a strong prejudice against North Korean men. My father always drank and abused, but the North Korean man I met in Korea spoke nicely. I met a Korean man who saw me home and asked for gas money!” surprising the panelists. Kim Sook said, “You met the wrong person!” and Jeon Hyun-moo said, “You met a stingy guy,” looking incredulous.
Lee Soon-sil asked, “Who’s better, Park Myung-soo or Jeon Hyun-moo?” Kim So-yeon replied, “I prefer Park Myung-soo,” and Lee Soon-sil agreed, “That’s right~ We North Koreans really like Park Myung-soo!” So-yeon added, “Jeon Hyun-moo has deep double eyelids and a round face,” while Min-hee said, “He seems cold to women. But I think Park Myung-soo would be terrible to his woman, so I’d marry Park Myung-soo and date Jeon Hyun-moo,” she replied. Lee Soon-sil said, “I think so too. Park Myung-soo is much better than Jeon Hyun-moo, who peels pumpkin seeds from behind,” and Jeon Hyun-moo, who was watching, exclaimed, “How can you peel pumpkin seeds from behind!” looking flustered.
The second boss to appear was Eom Ji-in. He said, “You know I recently announced a volleyball caster position, right? There’s one caster vacancy, and since the volleyball season has started, Joo-yeon, Jin-woong, and Hyun-jong have applied, and the reason we gathered is for a mid-term check. Yu-won and Eun-hye think that both the caster and commentator are important, but the field reporter is also important. I called them to conduct auditions for field reporters,” explaining why he called the new announcers.
He continued, “It’s not easy for Joo-yeon to prepare for the caster role during her annual leave, and being a volleyball caster is an insane challenge,” he said. The all-around caster asked, “Have you studied a lot? You know A, B, C, right? Do you know the scoring rules?” conducting a mid-term check.
The audition day arrived, and Eom Ji-in asked, “Hyun-jong worked with Joo-yeon, right? How was it?” Hyun-jong replied, “He has potential. He absorbs quickly,” giving a thumbs up. Joo-yeon said, “He postponed his work to help me,” and the panelists formed a love triangle, saying, “He’s Jeon Hyun-moo’s competitor.” Jeon Hyun-moo responded, “Is it a love triangle now? Do as you please. Do as you please,” with a bitter smile.
Then, commentator Han Yu-mi and announcer Lee Jae-hoo appeared, and Eom Ji-in asked, “Do you know Han Yu-mi’s nickname?” Jin-woong replied, “He has the nicknames ‘Utility Pole’ and ‘Seo Su-nam’,” which made the atmosphere awkward.
The volleyball caster & reporter audition began, and the first contestant was Jeong Eun-hye. After watching Eun-hye’s presentation, Lee Jae-hoo said, “It’s long! You need to time it perfectly,” while Eom Ji-in commented, “She tried to ask all the questions, and I found similarities with Jin-woong.” The second contestant was Heo Yu-won, and Lee Jae-hoo said, “It feels like reading a great piece of writing,” while Han Yu-mi said, “I think I could go in right away,” praising her.
The third boss to appear was Jeong Ji-sun, who was invited as a representative chef from Korea to a VIP event in Taiwan. Following last week, he was making 140 servings of black vinegar seasoned dried radish and batters when Kim Sook came to visit and said, “I think I’m better than you guys. I’ll do everything,” shifting the responsibility, while Kim Sook replied, “This feels like punishment. Ouch, it’s hot! I almost dropped it,” working hard.
After finishing all the batters, Jeong Ji-sun tasted them and said, “No, this can’t be pressed... The batters are melting? It was 30 minutes before the event, and I could just put the batters on, but all the moisture stuck to the batters,” declaring an emergency. Jeong Ji-sun said, “Bring it here,” saving the usable batters, but worried, “They all melted! Is this only 90 servings? Do I need to make more?”
In the end, the unusable batters were all thrown away, and they decided to make them again, repeating the process of making and cleaning with the staff.
Jeong Ji-sun said, “I’m nervous. What should I do? Oh, I’m nervous,” trembling, but as the event started, he began to speak fluently, easing his tension. However, the remaining staff were struggling with a lack of sugar to make the batters, and Jeong Ji-sun, unaware of this, proceeded with the main event of making the batters.
In the meantime, the staff also succeeded in making the batters after various twists and turns.
‘Sadangui’ can be seen every Sunday at 4:45 PM on KBS2.
