RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : S. Korean Politician Views Rubble, Tells Business Owners to Keep Faith
South Korea’s most prominent opposition leader toured several riot-torn areas of Los Angeles on Monday, consoling devastated Korean and Korean-American business owners with a promise to push for financial support from his government to help them rebuild their community.
“The only thing I can tell you is not to lose hope,” Democratic Party President Kim Dae Jung told several Korean-American business owners whose buildings were destroyed in last week’s rampage.
“I will go back and ask the government to do everything possible,” Kim said. “(Rioters) may have taken everything you own, but they cannot take away your faith and experience.”
Kim’s visit coincided with the arrival of an official delegation from the South Korean government--a sign that the devastation of the city’s Korean-American business community is likely to play a key role in the country’s national election in December. Kim is one of the nation’s leading presidential candidates.
“In Korea, all of the people are deeply concerned over what has happened in Los Angeles,” Kim said. “What I saw today was (beyond) my expectations. I’m upset that the police here were unable to protect much of the Korean community and I hope that we never see such an unfortunate thing again.”
However, Kim said he could not support the South Korean government’s view that the United States should offer reparations for hundreds of Korean store owners who suffered damage in last week’s rioting.
A delegation headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Ho Seung met with Korean business leaders and Mayor Tom Bradley on Monday to discuss compensation for the damage, but the government has not yet said how much it will be seeking.
Kim also met with Bradley and asked him to create a task force to engender greater understanding between Korean-Americans and other ethnic groups. Kim said Bradley did not commit to the task force plan, but assured him that city officials would help riot victims with low-interest loans.
Many business owners wept as they gave their accounts of the destruction to the party chief, who spent three years in exile in Los Angeles beginning in 1982 after being imprisoned in South Korea for his political views.
Kim’s 28-member entourage visited Korean- and Korean-American-owned businesses that were destroyed in Watts, Compton and Koreatown.
“I don’t know how we’re going to make it,” shop owner Gary Park told Kim at the site of a burned-out building that housed 80 Korean-owned businesses at Central Avenue and Redondo Beach Boulevard in Compton. “We have no money, no future and no solution.”
During his stops, Kim suggested that, as part of efforts to mend relations with Los Angeles’ African-American community, Korean-American officials consider expanding cultural awareness programs and draw up joint economic development plans.
Local Korean-American leaders estimate the damage to businesses owned by their countrymen is as much as $300 million. Local leaders estimate more than 850 Korean- and Korean American-owned businesses throughout Los Angeles suffered damage or were destroyed in the violence.
David Kim, vice president of the Korean-American Chamber of Commerce, said community leaders are mobilizing to help owners of damaged businesses apply for federal relief funds.
Also on Monday, hundreds of volunteers showed up at Radio Korea near downtown Los Angeles to provide assistance to riot victims, including food and counseling, and Kim Dae Jung made an afternoon stop to thank them for their efforts.
