L.A. Korean Americans Greet Visiting Leader Kim Young Sam

Waving the flags of both their native and adopted lands, about 150 Korean Americans on Monday welcomed South Korean President Kim Young Sam and his wife to Los Angeles during their brief stopover en route to a historic, five-nation state visit to Latin America.

Kim and first lady Sohn Myung Soon, whose ties to Southern California go back years, later met with a select gathering of 650 Korean Americans at a reception Monday evening at the Century Plaza Hotel.

“Please become outstanding Americans,” said Kim, 68, the first civilian to head South Korea in more than three decades. “When you become exemplary Americans, you will reflect positively on your motherland.”

During the brief talk, the South Korean leader touched on many subjects, including North Korea, its nemesis.

Calling reunification of the two Koreas “my dream,” Kim urged North Korea to accept the proposal he made last April with President Clinton for a four-nation meeting to discuss a wide range of issues aimed at reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Outside, about 50 members of the Korean American Coalition Against Political Repression in South Korea protested Kim’s visit.

“He used to be one of us [dissidents],” said Simon Lim, chairman of the group. “But since he became president, he has abandoned his principles.”

The evening was the social event of the season in Southern California for many of the estimated 500,000 people of Korean ancestry who live here, the largest concentration of Koreans outside Asia.

The presidential visit turned out a “Who’s Who” of the vibrant but sometimes insular community.

Befitting the occasion, many Korean women arrived, bejeweled and elegant in their traditional attire hanbok.

“Your status in the community goes up when you get invited to an event like this,” said Kapson Yim Lee, editor of the Korea Times English Edition in Los Angeles. “This is a Korean American version of a White House party.”

Los Angeles--which Koreans affectionately refer to as a Seoul suburb--is dear to the South Korean leader’s heart.

In the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a dissident resisting South Korean rulers Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan, Kim received financial and moral support from Korean Americans, many from Los Angeles. When he ran for president in 1992, thousands of Korean Americans--some who couldn’t even vote for him--raised money and campaigned by phone, fax and and mail.

For a time, his eldest son lived in Los Angeles, and ran a swap meet near Commerce.

Kim’s three predecessors were all former generals. Last month, Chun Doo Hwan was sentenced to death and Roh Tae Woo was given more than 22 years in prison for seizing power in a 1979 mutiny after former President Park Chung Hee’s assassination.

In recent days, Korean language news media have been stirring up interest with tidbits of the visit--who’s invited and who would be with the presidential couple at the head table.

In a sharp departure from previous practice, the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles made a point of inviting not only community leaders in Koreatown and Kim supporters and friends, but accomplished Korean Americans in the mainstream, said Chang-Kee Sung, press attache at the Korean Consulate.

Today, the Kims leave for Guatemala, accompanied by 42 South Korean business leaders, on the first leg of his 11-day trip to promote “friendship and trade” in Central and South America.

South Korea, which has gone from being one of the poorest countries after World War II to the world’s 11th-largest economy, is looking for cheaper labor forces outside their country, where wages have risen sharply.

After a summit meeting with Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu on economic cooperation, Kim will have summit sessions in Guatemala with the heads of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to talk about forming a international agency to handle South Korean-Central American issues.

In a historic first for a South Korean president, Kim will travel to South America to meet with the heads of Brazil, Chile and Peru to discuss practical ways to increase trade and investment.

Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto last week completed a similar five-nation tour of Central America.

After his Latin American trip, Kim will head for Cambridge, Mass., to deliver a speech on democratization and reform in South Korea at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

In Los Angeles, the Kims were welcomed at the airport by City Council President John Ferraro, Councilman Nate Holden and South Korean Ambassador to the United States Park Kun Woo.

Kim made no public statement at the airport, but hugged two Korean American children, who presented him and his wife with bouquets. He also shook hands with each of the 150 Korean Americans on hand.

Immediately after arriving at the Century Plaza Hotel minutes after 12 noon--4 a.m. Seoul time--Kim changed into his white jogging outfit, headed for the Beverly Hills High School track.

There, he ran five laps around the track, walked two, and then returned to the hotel for lunch.

An avid runner and hiker, Kim is famous for keeping up his routine even by running in his small yard when he was under house arrest during his dissident years.