Korean community expresses shock, sorrow

WASHINGTON — When Yung Yang, a South Korean-born secretary in Annandale, Va., heard the first rumors that the man who had slaughtered 32 people at Virginia Tech University was Asian, she said a fervent prayer: Please don't let him turn out to be Korean.

Tuesday, Yang's eyes filled with tears as she recalled her anguish on learning that Cho Seung-hui not only hailed from the same nation as herself but had grown up in the same Korean-American community of northern Virginia.

"I am so sorry about this," said, Yang, 30, clasping her hands together as though begging for forgiveness. "Every Korean person is so very sorry."

It was a sentiment echoed across the Washington, D.C., area's 52,000-strong Korean-born community, as one of the region's most educated and established immigrant groups grappled with the notion that such a horrific act could have been committed by one of their own.

And from Seoul, South Koreans and their government appealed to Americans not to let the carnage generate racial prejudice against the 2 million South Koreans who live in the United States.

At least two Korean-language radio stations that serve Washington suspended their regular programming so Korean-American listeners could call in to vent their collective shock. Along with profound grief for the victims and concern for Cho's family, many expressed fear that his actions would tar the entire Korean-American community.

"I hope everyone can see this as a tragic, random act of violence, and keep the broad-brushing of the racial aspect out of it," said Mark Keam, a founder of the Korean American Coalition of Greater Washington.

Mihae Kim, another community activist in Virginia, was especially worried about the impact on younger Korean Americans who still might be insecure about their place in American society.

"Even for those who were born in America, they may face an identity crisis," she said, adding that various community groups and churches were working to arrange youth counseling this week. "They may be looked at differently now. ... There may be ethnic issues."

Several local leaders also speculated that Cho's fate might prompt Korean-born parents to reassess their community's longtime practice of immigrating to this country for the express purpose of enrolling their children in U.S. schools.

"It leads us to question what kinds of unspoken stresses results from the immigration and assimilation process for young Asian men here in America," said Kyungsup Shin, owner of a northern Virginia Korean-language radio station.

Adding to the pressures on such youngsters, he and others said, is the knowledge that their parents have made great sacrifices to send them to the United States — taking lower-level jobs, for instance, or remaining behind in Korea to earn enough money to support their children in the United States.

But despite its educational advantages, American society also contains hidden dangers for immigrant children, noted Sang Keun Park, a Korean-born lawyer.

"To a lot of Korean parents, the American dream is to educate their children to be participants in the mainstream society," he said. "But this society is also permeated by a culture of violence, and [the Korean-born] children are also going to be subject to it."