By Min Yea-Ji and Yoon Hee Young

Support is pouring in for Jincheon-gun County, Chungcheongbuk-do Province, for hosting evacuees from Afghanistan designated "people of special merit."

Jincheon Mall, a county-run online shopping site mainly selling regional specialties including rice, on Aug. 29 had to temporarily stop receiving orders due to excessive traffic.

The mall said it received about 1,500 orders from Aug. 27, a volume 20 times larger than on an ordinary weekend. The site will resume operation from Sept. 2 after catching up with its backlog of orders.

Messages of support for the county and appeals to resume the website's sales flooded the mall's online bulletin board, including "I came here to support you for your warm hearts," "I applaud Jincheon-gun's warm and noble decision," and "I want to order products even if it takes a year."

A combined 377 Afghans who helped the Korean government in Afghanistan on Aug. 26 landed in Korea with their families and were transported to the National Human Resources Development Institute, their temporary shelter, in the county.

Welcoming the Afghans, Jincheon-gun residents put up banners in Korean, English and Dari, the Afghan dialect of Persian, saying, "We share your pain. We hope you make yourself at home during your stay." The messages were a warm gesture of hospitality and kindness to comfort those with painful wounds forced to flee their homeland.

An online movement also started to support the county for embracing the Afghans.

The avalanche of orders on the site was ignited thanks to a drive to give the mall "donjjul," a Korean neologism combining the Hangeul words don (money) and honjjul (punishment). The term has a paradoxical meaning to "punish" Jincheon-gun by buying more from its mall.

The Afghan evacuees will stay at the institute for six to eight weeks until they get settled in Korea, receiving education on social adaptation such as classes in the Korean language and culture.

jesimin@korea.kr