By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

Korean top singer and actor Rain participated in volunteer work and donated 300 million won towards the Taean oil spill cleanup.

Rain visited Taean, South Chungcheong Province, to help clean up after one of the worst oil spill disasters with staff from his agency on Wednesday. Despite the freezing weather, Rain worked hard to remove oil from the beach.

After volunteering at the scene, he donated 300 million won for the clean-up efforts in Taean on Thursday.

The singer-actor recently came back to Korea from Los Angeles where he had been shooting his first Hollywood movie ``Speed Racer,'' the latest work of the Wachowski brothers. The volunteer work was his first public appearance this year.

J Tune Entertainment, Rain's management agency, said that Rain originally wanted to keep his volunteer work a secret. However, the number of volunteers coming to Taean is on the decrease and the provincial government asked him to publicize his work to encourage more people to help Taean.

According to the South Chungcheong provincial government, approximately 1.1 million volunteers visited Taean after the country's largest-ever oil spill about a month ago.

Rain recently signed a one-year contract with Samsung Electronics for modeling for Samsung Anycall's advertising campaign for the Beijing Olympics. His Hollywood debut, ``Speed Racer'' will be released in May.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr
Source:http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2008/01/178_17521.html