WONJU, South Korea -- Cho Tae-joon, 45, stood sweeping gravel at an intersection of Roanoke Street on a freezing December afternoon.

Cho sweeps this street, named for Wonju's sister city in Virginia, six days a week. It's a never-ending job, thanks to the dump trucks that track mud from the construction sites that line the street.

Still, Cho said he has no idea of the significance of the street's name or where in the world is Roanoke, Va.

"I don't know anything about it," he said, holding his green plastic-bristled broom and staring up at the street sign written in English and Korean.

Roanoke and Wonju celebrated their 40th anniversary as sister cities in 2004. Since 1964, the cities have exchanged dignitaries, students and professionals. In addition to Roanoke Street, Wonju has an outdoor pavilion named after the Star City.

But officials in this city of near 300,000 in a mountainous region of northeastern South Korea admit that few people here, aside from government officials, know much about Roanoke, or its relationship with their city.

"We struggle with that," said E.J. Park of Wonju's International Affairs Office. "People here know about New York and L.A. Probably not that many know about Roanoke."

Lee Jin-hee is a good example. The 18-year-old rides her bicycle close to a mile from her home to a part-time job as a cashier downtown. As she rides, Lee passes signs in English for an "L.A. Dental Clinic" and Dunkin' Donuts.

Asked about Roanoke, Lee said she was aware of the Roanoke Pavilion and Roanoke Street, but knew little about the place for which they were named.

"I think I saw something about it on television, but I can't really remember much about it," she said.

Lee, who was born in Wonju, said she didn't know her city and Roanoke were somehow connected.

Wonju, like other Korean cities, is rife with American music, movies and fast-food brands.

Roanoke may not play large, or play at all, in the American pop culture that young Koreans devour. But Wonju Mayor Kim Gi-yeol said he hopes sending schoolchildren to Roanoke will help spread the word about the city to young people.

Kim Tan-bi, 14, traveled to Roanoke for three weeks last year along with seven other Wonju students as part of an exchange program set up by the two cities.

Dressed in hip-hop-inspired baggy pants, an MP3 player hanging around her neck, she was quick to point out her favorite American things.

Linkin Park and Christina Aguilera, she said, naming her top American musical acts.

Roanoke? "The people were very nice," Kim said.

Park, of the International Affairs Office, has traveled to Roanoke several times and thinks it is the perfect place to experience "real America."

Few Koreans live in Roanoke, unlike larger U.S. cities, which forces visitors to speak English and try more American food, Park said.

On Friday, another small group of Korean students were to arrive in Roanoke for a three-week stay. The group will attend classes at North Cross School and take field trips around the Roanoke area and to Washington, D.C.

Roanoke's sister city committee intends to send Roanoke students to Wonju, although plans have not been finalized, said committee chairman Jack Tompkins.

As in Wonju, many Roanokers probably don't know Wonju as anything more than the name of a street, said former chairwoman Jennifer Mulligan. The student exchanges go a long way toward fixing that, she said.

If Roanoke is off the radar of the average Wonju citizen, the same can be said of Wonju itself to the average Korean living elsewhere in the country.

Wonju is a large city by American standards. But in Korea, which has a land mass smaller than Virginia, the city is in the hinterlands. Seoul, the capital city of more than 10 million, dominates Korean economic, political and cultural life.

In 2007, a new city hall now under construction will open on Roanoke Street close to where Cho sweeps. When it does, citizens will have one more reason to learn about a city more than 7,000 miles away.

Perhaps it is amazing that even a handful of people on the other side of the globe know about Roanoke when it is unknown to some from much closer to home.

Later on that December day, Jennifer Hounjet, 28, an English teacher from Canada, stood in front of two middle school students at a private academy in Wonju. She introduced a visitor from Roanoke.

"Do you know where Roanoke, West Virginia, is?" she asked her students.

The children shook their heads no.