Koreans in L.A. Give Roh’s Win Mixed Reviews

For many leaders in Southern California’s large Korean American immigrant community, the election of human rights lawyer Roh Moo Hyun as South Korea’s president Thursday was foreboding news -- a sign of rising anti-American sentiment and, potentially, a strained future relationship between their homeland and their adopted land.

But, among the younger generation and more liberal Korean Americans, Roh’s victory was welcomed as signaling a new era of equality in South Korea and possibly a more equitable relationship with the United States, whose military presence in Korea dates to 1945.

“This is a new beginning for Korea,” said the Rev. Kris Kim, pastor of the Church of Peace near Koreatown. “Finally, the Korean people will have a chance to nurture a civil society.”

But Koreatown businessman Walter Ik Hyun Cho, who supported losing candidate Lee Hoi Chang of the Grand National Party, said he is concerned about the future relationship between the two longtime allies.

“The younger generation that helped elect Mr. Roh doesn’t understand how important the United States is to [South] Korea and the security of the Korean peninsula,” Cho said. “They did not experience the Korean War. They don’t understand North Korea.”

Whether for or against Roh, Korean immigrants agreed on one thing: Now that South Korean voters have spoken, they want to support the new leader.

Impressed by Roh

Many are impressed at the achievement of Roh, the first South Korean president to be elected without attending college. For Koreans, to whom education is an obsession, the victory of a man who passed the bar through self study is a notable accomplishment.

Kee Whan Ha, president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, who had remained publicly neutral during the campaign, said Thursday he had supported Roh all along.

“I wish he could come to the United States as soon as possible to see how we live, set up a good relationship with Los Angeles and the United States,” said Ha, a wealthy businessman who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from UCLA.

Koreatown is planning a community celebration for Roh later this month.

Roh’s victory comes at a time of increased anti-American sentiment in South Korea, in part because of a highly publicized case in which two Korean girls were run over and killed by a U.S. military vehicle.

The acquittal of two American soldiers by a U.S. military court has led to mass demonstrations in South Korea and smaller demonstrations here.

U.S. Arrogance Seen

On three nights over the last 10 days, Korean Americans, joined by non-Korean activists, held candlelight vigils to draw attention to what they say is an example of the way the U.S. government deals with its weaker ally.

At one recent protest, demonstrators filed in front of a makeshift altar that displayed pictures of the girls, who were walking to a friend’s birthday celebration on a winding country road when they were struck.

The Rev. Han Sang Ryul, chairman of a South Korean delegation that tried unsuccessfully to deliver petitions about the deaths to the White House earlier this month, said his group believes President Bush should make a public apology to the South Korean people and to the bereaved families and turn the two soldiers over for trial in a Korean court.

Many of the protesters also want to see revisions in the agreement that governs the U.S. troop presence in South Korea.

Bush has already conveyed his “sadness” and “regret” through the U.S. ambassador in Seoul and in a telephone call to South Korean President Kim Dae Jung last week.

In 1995, “when a Japanese girl was raped by U.S. soldiers on Okinawa, President Clinton was quick to apologize,” said Korean American attorney Tong S. Suhr.

He said it pains him that, despite South Korea’s loyalty as a U.S. ally, America has not treated Korea as well as it has Japan, its former enemy.