Korean Groups Assail Holden : Reaction: Leaders demand apology after councilman’s remark that watching strippers is typical business practice in South Korea.

Offended by reports that Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden was entertained by scantily clad women during an official trip to South Korea--and by Holden’s contention that such behavior is a typical business practice there--Korean American community leaders are demanding a public apology from the veteran lawmaker and may launch a recall campaign against him.

A variety of community groups have written letters of outrage to Holden and his colleagues, and they expect about 50 local leaders at a meeting today to plot an official protest strategy. A separate group of women’s organizations is planning a news conference today to condemn Holden’s behavior.

“He dishonored the Korean culture and he misrepresented the Korean tradition,” said the Rev. Hyun Seung Yang, executive director of the Korean Federation. “People are very upset.”

Angela Oh, an attorney who chairs the Korean American Family Service Center, called Holden’s conduct “very troubling” and said the City Council should consider censuring the 66-year-old councilman, whose 10th District includes Koreatown.

“He’s in a position to bridge these gaps, to not get caught up in the stereotyping and the blaming,” Oh said. “Instead, what he’s done is he’s really vilified the very people who support him. It really feels like betrayal.”

The Times reported Monday that Holden and his aides attended a karaoke party at which strippers performed during a 1991 city business trip to Seoul and Pusan, and that pictures of the event--including one of a woman wearing nothing but panties, singing into a microphone--had landed in the public record after a burglary at Holden’s Marina del Rey condo last summer.

Holden explained the pictures at the time by saying, “That’s the way you do official business there.”

News of the risque photographs follows two sexual harassment lawsuits against Holden by former employees. Holden was exonerated in the first case after a six-week, nonjury trial, and a judge recently dismissed the second lawsuit, although the plaintiff has vowed to appeal.

This week’s revelations about the disrobing dancers have also revived questions among Holden’s colleagues on the 15-member council about how elected officials can better monitor one another’s behavior. No formal proposal has emerged, but council members are discussing setting guidelines for politicians on out-of-town business trips and are considering forming an ethics committee such as that in Congress, which investigates members’ conduct and can discipline them or remove them from office.

Councilman Mike Feuer has asked city staff to study other public agencies for a model peer review panel.

“It’s painful that there are no ways to control each others’ behavior,” said Laura Chick, one of four female council members. “When one politician does something that has negative connotations in the perception of the public, it affects all politicians. We have not only a responsibility to the voters but a responsibility to each other.”

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said the sad reality is that council members are accountable solely to voters in their districts. “The lesson to anyone in the city who has any opinion about this is it really does matter who you vote for,” she said.

Holden could not be reached for comment; he skipped Tuesday’s council meeting without an excused absence and appeared only briefly at Wednesday’s session, holding a newspaper over his face as he walked by Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who criticized his behavior in the initial Times story on the photographs.

Asked about the fallout in the Korean American community, Holden aides brushed off the potential recall as just the latest maneuver by longtime political rivals.

“I think this thing has gotten blown way out of proportion. It was a minor incident that has been magnified,” press secretary Roger Galloway said. “I think he will explain further with the Korean community and there will be no problem.”

But leaders of at least half a dozen Korean groups--including first- and second-generation Americans and the Korean Consulate here--said Holden’s behavior and subsequent explanation are unacceptable. The councilman may have made his plight worse at a Tuesday news conference for Korean media, several leaders said, because he refused to apologize for his conduct or comments.

“Our community questions competency and adequacy of ethical and moral standards of Councilman Holden and his staff to run our district,” Sang Ho Kim, president of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, wrote to the City Council. “We feel that his ethical and moral standards are not in line with our community standards.”

The controversy is the latest flap in the contentious relationship between Holden--who is African American--and local Korean Americans. Although Holden has received major financial backing in his campaigns from some Korean American business people, he has long been criticized for serving only part of the community’s interests.

A Times review of campaign records showed that between 1991 and 1994, 34% of Holden’s 1,309 contributors were Korean Americans. They gave a total of $185,750, or about 25% of the funds that Holden raised during that period. In his 1995 reelection campaign, Holden held about 10 fund-raisers in Koreatown.

The 10th District has a population that is 8% Korean, though only 1% of the registered voters are of Korean descent, according to the 1990 census.

Holden recently was criticized for not supporting the nomination of a Korean woman who is an opponent of affirmative action to the Airport Commission, and he previously had frustrated Koreatown grocers by speaking out against state legislation that would have made it easier for them to regain liquor licenses after the 1992 riots. But he maintains significant power over development and other projects in the Korean American community simply because he represents it geographically.

“It’s difficult for me to speak on the record because we depend on him for funding. It’s difficult for everybody,” said Bong Hwan Kim, executive director of the Korean Youth and Community Center. “He’s been able to play the game of divisions, dealing with businesses on a case-by-case basis. That’s only part of constituency services.”

Charles Kim of the KoreanAmerican Coalition--who worked for Holden when he first was elected to the council in 1987--said his former boss has embarrassed “not only Korean Americans, but Americans in general” by cavorting with half-naked women while on official business. Even if the community cannot gather enough signatures for a recall, Kim said, it is important to send a serious message to Holden.

In a letter to the editors of The Times, Korean Chamber of Commerce Chairman Kee Hwan Ha agreed.

“He has taken his experience with a select group of men in Korea and extrapolated it to all Koreans. This is how stereotypes are started and perpetuated,” Ha wrote.

Times correspondent Kay Hwangbo and Peter Hong contributed to this story.