30,000 March in Koreatown Show of Support

An estimated 30,000 people marched through Los Angeles’ Koreatown in a show of support for beleaguered merchants Saturday while, in Seoul, the speaker of the South Korean Parliament said the U.S. government should compensate Korean-Americans for riot damage.

The marchers--some wearing white headbands of mourning, some carrying brooms and plastic garbage bags--came from such areas as San Diego, Laguna Niguel, Santa Monica and the South Bay in response to appeals from Korean-language radio stations.

“It hurts right here,” said Joyce Kim of Diamond Bar, patting her heart to describe her anguish over the reported 300 Korean-owned stores that were looted or set afire following the Rodney King verdict. “Koreatown is all our family.”

“We want peace,” said Myung-Sik Ahn, 61. “We want no more fighting.”

With that spirit of reconciliation in the air, several elderly Korean men left the parade route to shake the hands of Latinos and African-Americans who were watching. A Latino woman reached out and hugged one marcher, sobbing.

A black youth waved a Korean flag and thrust a fist into the air in a gesture of solidarity. The Koreans cheered.

Richard Royce, an African-American who participated in the march, said he was disappointed that more blacks were not involved because “this was an ideal opportunity to have some kind of rapprochement between the black and Korean communities.”

The march--which proceeded along Olympic Boulevard, Western Avenue, 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue--was peaceful except for one incident in which an apparently inebriated Latino pedestrian began taunting the participants and making obscene gestures. Several marchers knocked the man to the ground. He was immediately arrested by Los Angeles police.

The shock waves of the rioting were also being felt in South Korea.

Park Jyun-kyu, the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly, urged compensation of the Korean-American victims. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Korean-American damage in Los Angeles topped $180 million. The Ministry of Transportation in South Korea ordered travel agencies to stop package tours to Los Angeles, and airlines said 40% of their reservations had been canceled.

The Korean-American community in Los Angeles, which numbers an estimated 460,000, constitutes the largest Korean population outside of South Korea.

There was speculation that the attacks during the rioting reflected a resentment by blacks of the success of many Korean-American businesses in minority neighborhoods. Many blacks, however, have contended that they are sometimes treated rudely by the Korean merchants.

“They say, ‘You guys take our money out of our community and you never put anything back in,’ ” said grocer Richard Rhee.

Relations worsened last spring when a Korean-American merchant shot a 15-year-old black youth to death, in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. The merchant, Soon Ja Du, 54, received probation instead of a prison sentence in the death of Latasha Harlins, further angering the black community.

“Ever since the (Harlins) case, we didn’t get along,” Rhee said of the black and Korean communities. “With the Rodney King case, what I think is that they (were trying) to get even with us.”

While the marchers spoke of reconciliation, many could not hide their resentment over the lack of police deployment in South Los Angeles and Koreatown during the first two days of the rioting.

“We were not helped on time,” said Cindy Chun, 23, of Gardena. “We felt we were abandoned. The most humiliating thing was to see the police just standing there as businesses were burning. I knew there was a build up (of tension). They should have known.”

“There was nothing. Where . . . were the cops?” said a female friend of Edward Lee, the 18-year-old high school student who was fatally shot Thursday by looters while rushing toward a Koreatown store to defend it. She declined to state her name.

“The police officers haven’t paid attention to the Korean community. They didn’t show up until everything was already demolished,” said Jenny Byun, 24, a Koreatown bank clerk.

James An, 45, of Glendale, asserted that while police expected violence to occur after the verdicts were announced, “they don’t care about this area. They didn’t do anything.”

Others complained that ABC’s “Nightline” on Friday solicited comments from African-American community leaders but did not include Korean-American speakers. One marcher carried a large sign saying “We Hate Ted Koppel.”

Watching from inside his bookstore, Don Kim said he was heartened by the demonstration--as well as by the arrival of the National Guard on Friday.

“God, that helped us out a lot,” he said of the stationing of the troops.

Before the Guard arrived, Kim said, the security of his store was left to him and two of his employees, all carrying handguns. Twice, he said, they fought off looters.