$25,000 Offered for Tips in Koreatown Killing : Crime: L.A. will pay for information leading to the arrests of those involved in an Anaheim man’s death.

The Los Angeles City Council this week posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of two people in the killing of an Orange County man shot during a robbery near a busy intersection in Koreatown.

Soo Won Chough, 52, of Anaheim and a friend visiting from South Korea were walking along the 3300 block of West Olympic Boulevard about 10:10 p.m. Oct. 24 when they were accosted by a gunman, said Detective L. J. Jones of the Los Angeles Police Department Wilshire Division.

The gunman demanded money from the two men. Chough’s friend, Syung Hai Jo, gave him $20. The robber demanded more money, then ordered the two men to turn around, Jones said. Jo told detectives that he turned around, heard a shot and saw Chough bleeding from the neck.

The gunman then jumped into a white or gray compact car, and he and the car’s driver headed west on Olympic Boulevard, according to police reports. Chough was taken to Westside Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Chough was married and had a daughter.

City Councilman Nate Holden, whose district includes much of Koreatown, introduced the motion for the reward. “This is another senseless killing of the kind that is happening throughout our city,” Holden said. “We have to stop it.”

Jones said the police have only a sketchy description of the gunman: a black man in his early 20s and about 6 feet tall. The driver of the car was described only as black and male, he said. Anyone who may have witnessed the crime, which took place in front of a Mobil gas station near Western Avenue, is urged to call (213) 485-4033.

Chough came to Southern California from South Korea more than 10 years ago and had worked as a truck driver with a transportation company, according to friends and colleagues. James D. Lee, a businessman in the garment industry, said he remembered Chough as “an honest guy with a lot of guts.”

Lee said Chough’s wife, fearful for her husband’s safety, had asked him not to go Koreatown at night but that he had said that he wanted to meet his friend at a Koreatown hotel.

“He told his wife: ‘It’s OK. The U.S. is a beautiful country,’ ” Lee said.