Local Koreans Edge Toward More Political Activism

Attorney Tong Soo Chung, born in Korea and educated at Ivy League universities, is a registered Democrat in Los Angeles.

Why, then, does he plan to contribute money to Republican Sang R. Korman, a political unknown seeking the GOP congressional nomination in a district miles from Chung’s?

“His message for the Korean-American community is that it is time to get involved,” Chung said of Korman, who is also an immigrant. “He wants to be the example for the younger generation to aspire to those levels.”

Korman’s appeal reflects a desire of Southern California’s expanding Korean community to find a political voice and make political gains, as have other minorities. The effort has been prompted, in part, by a need to protect the group’s rights and interests on issues ranging from zoning, redistricting, government grants and bilingual social services to the depiction of Koreans in the American media, community leaders say.

Recent Korean immigrants “are well-educated, they are very concerned with political issues and they are financially better off” than other newcomers, said Chae Jin Lee, a political scientist and dean of social and behavioral sciences at California State University, Long Beach. “They feel their overall community interests can be promoted by taking part in the political process.”

More Political Involvement

Although the political impact of Koreans has been limited, they are edging toward increased political involvement, particularly in Los Angeles, home to the largest Korean population outside Asia. There are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Koreans in Southern California.

In recent years community activists, including the youth-oriented Korean American Coalition in Los Angeles, have pressured the U. S. media to repudiate unflattering depictions of Koreans, registered more than 6,000 new voters and helped place young Korean-Americans in government jobs and internships.

A Korean-American Democratic Committee was recently formed in Los Angeles to raise $250,000 from Koreans nationwide to contribute to one of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary and general-election campaigns, said Chee Hyung Lee, committee director. The committee has not decided which candidate it will support.

Well-heeled Korean businessmen and professionals have already contributed generously to the campaigns of Mayor Tom Bradley; Michael Woo, the first Los Angeles city councilman of Asian descent; former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and unsuccessful City Council candidate Arthur Song, a Korean-American. Korean-Americans now appear poised to bankroll Korman’s uphill candidacy, and there is talk of forming a political action committee to make the most of the ethnic group’s financial impact.

Reflecting this growing activism, Korean-Americans have been hired by U. S. Sen. Pete Wilson, state Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilmen Nate Holden and Robert Farrell, whose districts include parts of Koreatown, which is in the mid-Wilshire area, west of downtown. Some aides are used as liaison to the Korean community; others have different staff positions. Such posts often become a training ground for future candidates for public office.

Government’s Huge Impact

“Like many new immigrant groups, the Korean community is beginning to understand that government can have a major impact on their lives, ranging from building permits to community land-use questions to law and order,” said Woo, who is Chinese-American. He added that they are learning quickly.

Woo recently joined Korean activists to denounce as racist a Rolling Stone article that described Koreans as having “the same Blackglama hair, the same high-boned pie-plate face, the same tea-stained complexion, the same sharp-focused look.”

The protest has prompted an oral apology from Rolling Stone Executive Editor Robert Wallace, who said the article was intended as satire. But Korean activists, including representatives from the coalition, are further demanding a printed apology and retraction, another article on an Asian-related issue by a Korean or other Asian writer, the adoption of an Asian internship program and dismissal of staff writer P. J. O’Rourke. Another meeting has been scheduled between Wallace and Korean activists.

Woo is considered a role model by some Korean activists: an Asian-American who earned his political spurs as an aide to Roberti before Woo’s 1985 election in a district that is less than 5% Asian. But his success also emphasizes the hurdles Koreans face.

Although they control the commercial hub of Koreatown, Koreans have not established the same kind of political power structure as Chinese- and Japanese-American communities in Los Angeles, say Woo and some Korean-American activists. The many Korean organizations in the city do not act in concert and there is no dominant group or spokesman. The fragmentation is exacerbated by the dispersal of Korean residences throughout the city and county, further diluting their voting strength.

Moreover, there is a division between older, first-generation Koreans, many of whom do not speak English, and younger, bicultural Koreans, known as “the 1.5 generation,” a term which refers to the fact they came to the United States as children but have been educated here. Whereas older Koreans have been major political donors, younger activists are aggressively seeking to promote local Korean interests, helping shift the community’s political focus from Korea to the United States.

Relatively Recent Influx

The Korean influx is a recent phenomenon. In 1970, shortly after U. S. immigration restrictions were relaxed, there were 70,000 Koreans in the United States and fewer than 20,000 in Southern California. Since 1980, when the U.S. Census reported 357,000 Koreans nationwide, the influx has been 30,000 to 35,000 a year, with at least 20% locating in and around Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to Eui Young Yu, a professor of sociology and chairman of the Korean-American Studies Center at California State University, Los Angeles.

Thus, many newer immigrants have only recently become eligible to vote. Yu and others estimate that half the community’s potential voters are not registered and that as few of half of those registered actually go to the polls. This has prompted registration drives at citizenship ceremonies and during election campaigns.

Slightly more Koreans register as Democrats than Republicans, activists say. The Democratic appeal has been the party’s historic support for minorities; the GOP has tended to attract Koreans with its anti-Communist and free-enterprise emphasis.

The registration efforts have been spearheaded by the Korean American Coalition, an organization founded in 1983 by Tong Soo Chung and others as an advocate for Koreans. The group holds monthly meetings in its third-floor headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard and conducts an annual fund-raiser.

The Korean Federation of Los Angeles, a larger umbrella organization founded by older Koreans to help settle newcomers, also participates in community issues.

Both organizations were part of a 1985 bid to get the city to finance a senior center in Koreatown. It failed, even though hundreds of Korean-Americans packed the City Council chambers in support. They also backed an unsuccessful 1986 lawsuit that sought to keep Koreatown in a single City Council district in an effort to consolidate Korean political strength.

Historically Adaptable

Even in defeat, this willingness to jump into the American political arena reflects the historical adaptability of the Korean, said Chae Jin Lee, an expert in East Asian politics. He said this trait has been honed over centuries, enabling Koreans to maintain their distinct cultural identity despite invasions by neighboring Chinese, Mongolian and Japanese powers.

The biggest hurdle Koreans face is gaining elective office. Attorney Arthur Song, a cousin of former state Sen. Alfred Song, finished a disappointing fifth in a 13-member City Council field last year, despite raising more than $100,000. Some Song supporters called racism a factor.

Still, activists saw progress in a decision by Holden, who won the council seat in a runoff, to hire Charles J. Kim, Song’s assistant campaign manager, as a deputy. Kim, 32, a USC graduate and former executive director of the Korean Action Coalition, says he may seek office sometime.

Korman’s entry into politics also signals a step forward. Korman, 50, is a wealthy real estate developer who came to the United States from Korea 16 years ago and aspires to become the first Korean-American member of Congress. He opposes freshman Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) in the solidly Republican 21st District, which includes eastern Ventura County, parts of the San Fernando Valley and Santa Catalina Island. The conservative district has few Asian-American voters.

Korman’s candidacy has sparked enormous enthusiasm among Los Angeles Koreans, who tend to depict him as a courageous ethnic pioneer. Those familiar with his candidacy say they expect Korman to raise several hundred thousand dollars from fellow immigrants in Southern California and elsewhere in the United States. Korman’s budget calls for $300,000, according to campaign director Bob Lavoie, but Korean activists say the fund-raising goal is a hefty $500,000.

“He’s brave enough to challenge an incumbent,” said Jay K. Yoo, a politically active Los Angeles attorney. “We just support him because he’s a Korean.”

Unfamiliar With Politics

But even supporters like Yoo express concern about Korman’s halting English, lack of local government experience and unfamiliarity with the American political process. Some community activists say these problems may lead to embarrassment.

“We’re overlooking his personal capacities,” said one observer, who requested anonymity. “What we’re supporting is this symbolic beginning of something, but there’s no substance.”

Korman, who officially announced his candidacy last Tuesday, has been shielded from the English-speaking media, though he has done interviews in Korean with Korean newspaper editors and reporters. Lavoie said Friday that Korman’s media contacts have been restricted because “he hasn’t formed a lot of positions on the issues.”