Countywide : 2 Korean Americans Blaze Political Trail

Ho Chung and Julie Sa became pioneers to their fellow Korean Americans in 1992, when the two were elected as the first Korean Americans to serve on city councils in Orange County.

Chung was the first non-Caucasian ever elected to the Garden Grove City Council, while Sa became the first Korean American woman ever elected to the Fullerton City Council.

From the start, Chung, 59, has made it a top priority to blaze the trail for Korean Americans into the mainstream in government affairs and community life.

“They want to participate, but they don’t know how,” Chung said. “My job has been as a facilitator, an ambassador.”

“They want to be part of the community. Americans have an open heart, there should be no barriers,” he said.

Chung is devoting his energies to creating an international multicultural center that he believes would eliminate misunderstanding and break new ground for greater racial understanding and harmony.

Chung said the timing for a center is right because of the influence of Pacific Rim nations and because “time is moving toward a multicultural society.”

He believes Garden Grove is a perfect location for the center because it has vacant land, is close to the Port of Long Beach and is near enough to Anaheim to share tourist business with Disneyland.

He envisions the center including museums, theaters, exhibition halls, restaurants and souvenir shops reflecting cultures of the various peoples.

The Garden Grove City Council has endorsed the concept. He also has the support of Orange County Together, an organization with members from the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and representatives from the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

Chung said he has spoken with a developer for the center but talks fell through because of the developer’s wishes to include a gambling casino in the area, a feature that he believes is opposed by the majority of city residents.

He continues to press ahead with other negotiations, he said.

Like Chung, Sa also has been working toward cultural unity, she said.

But her focus is on promoting international business relations between the United States, China and North and South Korea.

“I’m trying to improve relations with China, Korea and America since I speak Chinese, Korean and English,” said Sa, 43. “I think we can improve our business relations.”

Sa, who is of Chinese ancestry, emigrated from Korea in 1973 and became a U.S. citizen in 1984. She started the first China Doll restaurant in Anaheim in 1976 and runs Richland Resource Inc., a fabric and building chemicals import-export business based in Anaheim. She also owns a development company in Anaheim.

She said her business experience has prepared her for achieving her goal.

“After the new year begins, I will set up a meeting with the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce to discuss my goal and I’ll be concentrating only on business.”

Sa said she plans to promote international business on the local level, then eventually broaden her campaign.