Shipbuilding island of Geoje bets on hometown idol

GEOJE, South Gyeongsang Province ― The men at the next table did not ask for a long conversation.

They simply reached over, set down a few freshly shucked conch with a few words and a shy chuckle, then went back to their soju as if nothing had happened.

This was Gohyeon Market on a recent Monday afternoon, and this reporter, a stranger from Seoul with a plate of raw sea bass, had just been adopted for an hour by a table of middle-aged men of South Gyeongsang Province.

People from this southeastern province carry a reputation, even among Koreans, for being gruff, blunt, allergic to compliments and small talk.

What those conch delivered instead was something closer to the opposite: a simple, unsentimental welcome that asked for nothing back.

It is the kind that no K-pop music video can stage, and on Geoje, an island of 230,000 people off Korea's southeastern coast better known for building supertankers than for making memories, it turned out to be everywhere.

The island drew thousands of local tourists as a K-pop rookie born on the island has become a YouTube influencer with her vlogs an ...