Korean-American Groups to Unite

KOREATOWN —  Following a recent meeting of Korean-American groups from around the nation, the Los Angeles-based Korean American Coalition was chosen to coordinate the establishment of a national advocacy and civil-rights organization.

The coalition will head the steering committee of the Korean American National Organizing Committee, which will lay the foundation for a permanent organization, said Jerry Yu, the coalition’s executive director.

“This is another step forward in the development of the Korean-American community and another sign that we are becoming more sophisticated,” Yu said.

Yu said that among issues that need to be addressed on a national scale from a Korean-American perspective are ethnic tensions in urban areas, the lack of Korean-language ballots and voting materials, and biased portrayals of Korean-Americans in mainstream media.

Though several national Korean-American organizations focus on special interests such as the grocery industry and education, the new advocacy organization would be the first to address “a wide range of issues that affect us as Korean-Americans,” Yu said.

A national organization will lend moral and political support to local groups and make the exchange of information among them easier, he said.

Discussions about the need for a national organization have been going on for several years, Yu said, but the April-May riots in Los Angeles and their impact on Korean-Americans were primary factors in the decision to create a national organization.

A founding convention is tentatively scheduled for May, 1993.