Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Korean Community Debates Focus of Its Quake Relief Efforts : Donations: Korean-run centers decline to aid two non-Koreans, causing concern and criticism. Others say community needs to look after itself.

As soon as word got out that Hyun Sook Lee, an immigrant from Korea, had lost her husband, son and home in the Northridge earthquake, the Los Angeles community of Korean immigrants and their American-born descendants swung into action.

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Within days, the 42-year-old Northridge resident had played host to a steady stream of visitors, including the Korean consul general and envoys from several charities. Community members donated thousands of dollars to Lee and her surviving son, Jason.

They came to Lee with the same commitment and dedication they showed in reaching out to the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 Koreans and Korean Americans hit by last week’s devastating earthquake. Community activists and organizations set up three disaster relief centers in the San Fernando Valley, whose 25,000 to 40,000 Korean residents are concentrated in Northridge, the quake’s epicenter, and nearby Granada Hills.

But within the community, some have wondered if relief efforts are focused too narrowly on fellow Koreans. At a relief site set up by the Korea Times newspaper last Thursday, a Latino man was offered a hot meal but was refused the non-perishable food that was being given away. At another site, an Anglo man was ignored when he tried to ask fellow quake victims about food and he eventually left.

Indeed, in grappling with the quake, the Korean community confronted a particularly troubling issue: whether to remain insular or to actively extend a hand to others.

Tuesday night, the Valley Korean United Methodist Church in Granada Hills held a barbecue for all quake victims--not just Koreans. Last week, Radio Korea gave water and food to people living in a tent city set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Winnetka Avenue in Northridge.

“It’s important that this not be a time which creates more division, but that it be a time where we come together,” said Bong Hwan Kim, executive director of the Korean Youth and Community Center.

Turning away non-Koreans, he said, was a matter of “deep concern.”

“It’s that kind of behavior that perpetuates the stereotype out there already about Koreans,” he said.

Last week, after the Korea Times posted a sign saying that relief supplies would only be provided to subscribers, Kim complained to the publisher.

The Korea Times, whose publisher ordered the sign removed, has said that the sign and the refusal of food to the Latino man was “a mistake.” The newspaper’s policy, said spokeswoman Kapson Yim Lee, has been to serve everyone.

The sign, said newspaper spokesman Robert Ku, should never have been posted. “We were rather concerned about that too,” he said.

Others in the Korean community said that while it is wrong to turn away non-Koreans, it is important to recognize that the community--many of whom do not speak English and do not know their way around the American system--needs to take care of its own.

“This earthquake severely hurt the Korean community,” said Charles Kim, president of the Korean American Coalition. “After the riots, Koreans needed time to catch up, but this is another shake-up.”

For Daniel K. Whang, the earthquake came as a stunning second blow to the damage he had already suffered in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. After Whang’s South-Central Los Angeles business burned to the ground during the unrest, he started a new business in the Valley.

The earthquake left his Northridge store, Continental Liquor, in shambles, wiping out nearly 90% of his inventory.

About 120 Korean American families moved to the Valley after the 1992 unrest. Of that number, about 70 families reported damage to businesses to the Assn. of Korean Victims of the Los Angeles riots, said Bong Oh, the organization’s president.

“I think, God, he didn’t help me,” said Jae Yul Kim of Encino. Kim, a five-year Valley resident whose business was destroyed in the unrest, said he lost furniture and a skylight in his house.

Korean Americans who were interviewed expressed relief the community had come forward with supplies. The three distribution sites provided food, clothing, water and blankets to about 1,500 people before they were consolidated into one center at the Valley Korean United Methodist Church.

But not everyone was able to partake in the largess. On Thursday, a Latino man came to the door of the Korea Times center where non-perishable food items were being distributed and asked in Spanish for food. A volunteer sent him to the hot-meal station but did not give him water and non-perishable food, which were being handed out to Koreans nearby. A few minutes later, the man disappeared.

“This food was donated by Koreans,” a volunteer said as the man was turned away. Earlier, a shabbily dressed Anglo man asked Korean victims at the center if sodas were being sold or given away. They ignored him, and he eventually left.

Officials at the relief sites of Radio Korea and the Valley Korean United Methodist Church said they gave food and water to everyone who came to their door.

However, Duncan Suh, a reporter for Radio Korea who compiled statistics of people served in the relief effort, said because the center had been advertised only on Korean radio and in the Korean language, few non-Koreans showed up.

Eui Young Yu, a community leader and sociologist at Cal State Los Angeles, criticized the idea of concentrating relief on fellow Koreans. During the riots, he said, it made sense to focus relief efforts on Koreans because they were targets. But in the earthquake, everybody was a victim.

“Koreans should be organized to help everyone, not just Koreans,” Yu said. “If white people organize to help white people and black people organize to help black people, then what is this? It’s not a city.”