Yong-jeung Kim
Yong-jeung Kim (alternatively spelled as Yongjeung Kim, Yong-jung Kim, or Young Jeung Kim) (Kim Yong-jung, 김용중 金龍中, 1898–1975) was a businessman, writer, and activist who eventually became a prominent advocate for neutral Korean reunification at the height of the Cold War. Born and raised in Korea, Kim moved to the U.S. as a young man and resided there for the rest of his life. Despite his residence in the U.S., he never lost interest in affairs on the Korean peninsula and dedicated his life to promoting Korea’s unification and neutrality. Through the Korean Affairs Institute, which he founded, its mouthpiece The Voice of Korea, a bi-weekly (and later monthly) tabloid newspaper, and a persistent letter-writing campaign to major newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times as well as to Korean political leaders, Kim carved out a firm position in support of a united, neutral Korea— rejecting the Cold War binary of communism and anti-communism for Korea—and in opposition to the authoritarian regimes of Syngman Rhee (1948–1960) and Park Chung Hee (1961–1979). Kim’s life provides a window into several topics in Korean history, such as early Korean immigration to the United States, the fractured politics of the Korean American community in the first half of the twentieth century, and the discourse on Korean unification and neutralization during the Cold War.
The Beginning of Kim’s Political Activism and Fractured Korean American Politics
Kim’s Political Activism on Behalf of the Neutral Unification of Korea
Kim was born in Kŭmsan (originally in North Chŏlla until 1962 when it was transferred to South Ch’ungch’ŏng) to a ginseng farmer in 1898.[1] Kim had an early marriage at the age of fifteen in 1913 to a girl one year his senior called Kim Hyŏn-sŏng, with whom he had a daughter in March 1916 called Kim Yŏng-bo. In October that same year, at the age of eighteen, Kim left his family, claiming that he was going to Seoul. Instead, Kim left for China.[2]
Kim first traveled to Shanghai, where he encountered nationalist activist Yŏ Un-hyŏng (1886–1947) and was deeply influenced by the latter’s nationalism.[3] Kim would be a supporter of Yŏ and his brand of moderate leftist nationalism throughout his life.
After staying in Shanghai for a time, Kim arrived in the United States in 1917 with the help of his hometown friend Leo Song (Song Ch’ŏl, 1894–1986), both of whom were in turn supported by Yŏ, who had acted as a broker in assisting around 70 Korean youths to travel to America to study.[4] Kim had no visa or passport, but was likely assisted by the Korean National Association (TaeHanin Kungminhoe) in entering the country.[5] Upon arrival, Kim most likely took on manual labor work in farming and railroad construction.[6]
In 1921, Kim enrolled in Central Junior High School in Los Angeles, which was focused on language instruction for foreign residents.[7] Kim studied there for two years.[8] Kim likely continued working to support himself while taking classes. Kim then enrolled in Los Angeles High School, graduating in 1922.[9] While a student in Los Angeles, Kim was already actively involved in the Korean community, acting as the Chairman of the Korean Student League of Los Angeles.[10]
After several years in the U.S., Kim entered the world of business. In Los Angeles, he and Song first worked together at a produce market in the city as middlemen (acting as both growers and wholesalers) in 1922 before forming their own wholesale company called K & S Jobbers in either 1925 or the summer of 1927, selling fruits and vegetables.[11] Interestingly, Song was a fervent supporter of Syngman Rhee (1875–1965), an independence leader who was active in North America for most of the Japanese colonial period and later became the first president of South Korea (1948–1960). In terms of politics, Rhee was the polar opposite stance of Kim, but this did not appear to harm Song and Kim’s professional relationship; both profited immensely from their business. Thanks to his wealth, Kim was able to devote much of his time to his independence and political activities from the 1940s onward.[12]
Kim and Song were exclusively tied to a company called Kim Brothers, Inc., a nursery business specializing in fruits. The leadership of Kim Brothers, Inc. did not in fact consist of brothers, but was headed by the triumvirate of Charles Ho Kim (Kim Ho, 1884–1968), Harry S. Kim (Kim Hyŏng-sun, 1886–1977), and Harry S. Kim’s wife Daisy Kim (Han Tŏk-se, 1894–1977). The company would make its name and fortune “by growing and marketing the ‘fuzzless’ nectarine, a hybrid developed by plant geneticist Fred Anderson” beginning in 1936.[13] These “fuzzless nectarines” were a hit with consumers and the company’s annual income surpassed a million dollars by the 1950s, while the Kims became the first Korean millionaires in America.[14] The Kims were leaders in the Reedley community; they employed many Koreans of the city, built the Reedley Korean Presbyterian Church, and also were deeply involved in Korean American political organizations.[15]
Yong-jeung Kim had more than just a business relationship with the other Kims of the Kim Brothers, Inc. He became the son-in-law of Harry S. Kim and Daisy Kim, marrying their eldest daughter Mary Ann Kim (Kim Yŏng-ok).[16] Yong-jeung and Mary Kim had two daughters, Marilyn and Dianne, both of whom would become artists as adults.[17] Dianne herself attended Harvard at Radcliffe, graduating with the Class of 1958 as an English concentrator.[18]
Despite his second marriage to Mary Kim, Yong-jeung Kim did not forget about his first family. From the wealth he gained through his business ventures, Kim continuously remitted money to his first wife Kim Hyŏn-sŏng back in Korea, thanks to which his daughter Kim Yŏng-bo, who never saw her father’s face outside of her first few months, was able to study in Japan.[19]
While working in his business, Kim applied to and entered Harvard as a special student, officially listed as “Young Jeung Kim.”[20] Harvard was the first college he applied to.[21] According to Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, Kim attended Harvard shortly after starting his venture with Song just a few months before during the summer of 1927 and earning good money from it.[22] In his application to Harvard in 1928, Kim listed his occupation as “commission broker since 1926.”[23]
Kim wrote in his application form that he was interested in studying at Harvard because it was an institution of “wisdom,” and noted that he was especially keen on studying politics because “[his] people is [sic] politically oppressed.”[24] Indeed, shortly after leaving Harvard, Kim is said to have published an advertisement in the July 8, 1928 issue of the Boston Sunday newspaper excoriating Japanese despotism.[25]
Kim wrote his application to Harvard at the university admission office itself on February 1, 1928.[26] Given that he began the semester that month (the semester began the week ending on February 11), it appears he was accepted on the spot or very soon after his submission of the application.[27]
Kim began his college career at Harvard with high hopes and expectations. His application included recommendations from several individuals. A Mrs. Kathleen S. Beck, who identified herself as having been Kim’s guardian for five years, vigorously supported his application, writing that he was a “superior young man” who was “serious and honorable in all of his undertakings” and would “bring nothing but credit to the institution” of Harvard.[28] Kim’s former teacher at Central Junior High School, Margaret M. Dooher, described him as a “dependable, hard working student of unusual ability, whose scholarship was uniformly of the first rank.”[29] Dooher added that she had “no hesitancy in recommending” Kim “as an honest, efficient and trustworthy young man with high purpose and unusual ambition.”[30]
However, Kim never graduated from Harvard. While his friend Leo Song claimed Kim was a graduate, another friend called No Kwang-uk stated that Kim only completed some coursework.[31] And indeed, Kim’s student files from Harvard corroborate No’s account. The Harvard University records show that he only attended for one semester in Spring 1928, from February until June that year.[32] It appears the primary reason for Kim’s dismissal was due to his poor performance in coursework. Kim enrolled in four courses in Spring 1928: English E: Special Instruction in English for Foreign Students; Philosophy 1: Logic; Government 16b: The Development of Political Institutions; and History 32b: American History.[33] Kim struggled in his classes, passingly only two of them, and was even summoned to see the Dean of Special Students A. F. Whittem midway through the semester, most likely due to concern over his progress.[34] Eventually, he was “honorably dismissed” from the university after the semester.[35]
It is unclear what contributed to Kim’s struggles at Harvard. It is possible that language may have been an issue; other Korean students at Harvard at around that time, such as Hyung Lin Kim and even No-Yong Park, had some difficulties overcoming the language barrier there. However, Kim’s later activities with The Voice of Korea and letter-writing campaigns indicate language was probably less of an issue than other factors. These include his preexisting commitments to his burgeoning businesses; it is likely Kim remained absorbed in his work at the expense of his studies. Furthermore, Kim was not only an ethnic minority at the school, he was already around 30 years old by the time he enrolled, making him much older than other undergraduates and likely hindering socializing with other students.
While it is unclear what sorts of discrimination or microaggressions Kim may have faced as one of the few Asian students at the school, there is at least one recorded instance of Kim’s ethnicity being misidentified. When Kim submitted a letter in 1929 discussing his dismissal from Harvard to Anne MacDonald, the administrative assistant to the Committee of Admissions, MacDonald forwarded the letter to Dean Whittem, writing “I enclose a request of a Siamese who wishes a ‘statement of my dismissal,’ whatever that may mean.”[36]
Despite his dismissal from Harvard, Kim expressed a desire to return. In his letter to MacDonald, he wrote that he had enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) to obtain enough credits to transfer back to Harvard.[37] Kim never did re-enroll at Harvard, but he continued to attend a variety of schools, including USC, Columbia University, and George Washington University.[38] It is unclear why he enrolled in so many schools, although Chŏng speculates that this was because of the distance between the East Coast (where most of his schools were located) and West Coasts (where he lived and worked) and the disruption this would have caused to his studies.[39]
The Beginning of Kim’s Political Activism and Fractured Korean American Politics
While lucrative, his business career was not the focus of Kim’s attention. Rather, his wealth enabled him to pursue his true passion, which was the independence of Korea, and after 1945, the neutral unification of the peninsula.
Kim’s political activist career can shed a light on the growing divisions within the Korean American community, much of it centered on the polarizing personality of Syngman Rhee. Central California was a locus of Korean American political activity. Syngman Rhee was active in this region, while key leaders such as Charles Ho Kim and Harry S. Kim established their profitable business there as well. Yong-jeung Kim also resided and worked in the region for much of his life before moving to Washington, D.C.
The Korean American community in Central California became divided politically by the conflict between Syngman Rhee and the Korean National Association (KNA), which originated from a dispute over finances and fundraising.[40] The clash between Rhee and the Kims of Reedley (Charles H. Kim, Harry S. Kim, and Daisy Kim) was also of a personal nature. Harry and Daisy Kim were initially strong supporters of Rhee, but after Rhee married Franziska Donner, there was an irrevocable split; because Rhee had previously exhorted Koreans to only marry other Koreans, the Kims, as well as other Koreans, found Rhee’s marriage to Donner, who was of Austrian descent, an act of hypocrisy.[41] Furthermore, Rhee had previously sought the Kims’ daughter Mary’s hand in marriage, which the Kims had refused. Mary was already engaged by that time—by a twist of fate, to Rhee’s future ardent critic Yong-jeung Kim.[42]
The Koreans of the neighboring town of Dinuba took the side of Rhee, while the Reedley community, which included Charles Ho Kim, Harry S. Kim, and Yong-jeung Kim, became an “anti-Syngman Rhee bastion” in the 1940s.[43] Reedley, coincidentally, was also where Yun Pyŏng-gu (1880–1949), the first Korean who attended Harvard, served as a pastor for a few years, although as a Rhee supporter, Yun did not share the politics of his neighbors.[44] This animosity between Rhee and the “Reedley Group” would last for decades even after Rhee became president of South Korea in 1948.
In January 1939, Yong-jeung Kim took up leadership positions within the Korean National Association, becoming the chairman of the publicity department and joining the KNA’s central executive committee. At the same time, he began editing the English section of the KNA newspaper Sinhan minbo.[45]
In September 1943, Kim established the Korean Affairs Institute (KAI; Han’guk Sajŏngsa) in Washington D.C. to lobby the American government and influence its policies toward Korea, launching the organization’s official mouthpiece The Voice of Korea two months later.[46] While Kim was front-and-center of the KAI and The Voice of Korea, other members of the so-called Reedley Group such as Charles Ho Kim, Harry S. Kim, and Weon-yong Kim were heavily involved, causing Marn Jai Cha to state that the KAI served “also as the Reedley group’s political outpost,” through which Kim “spoke for himself as well as for his Reedley collaborators.”[47]
Founded in the midst of World War II while Japan still ruled Korea, the newspaper first advocated Korean independence to American audiences. After Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the focus shifted to achieving immediate independence and unification of Korea from the rule of the United States and the Soviet Union, which had divided the peninsula into northern and southern occupation zones. As the division hardened, the politics of Korea grew more volatile and violent. The Reedley Group sought to go to Korea and effect change there directly.
In June 1947, Yong-jeung Kim followed Charles Ho Kim and Weon-yong Kim to the newly-liberated Korea and became immersed in the volatile politics in the southern zone.[48] They quickly attached themselves to Yŏ Un-hyŏng; Yong-jeung Kim and Charles Ho Kim both shared a history of being acquainted with Yŏ when each made their respective sojourns in China before going to the U.S., and both counted Yŏ as their political mentor.[49] Upon his arrival in Korea, Kim met with the commander of the U.S. military occupation force, Lieutenant General John R. Hodge, and even gave a radio address in early July 1947.[50]
But Kim’s trip to Korea would be short. Fatefully, Yŏ had just had a meeting with Yong-jeung Kim at Charles Ho Kim’s house in Seoul the morning of the day he was assassinated on July 19, 1947 by a right-wing youth group member.[51] Yong-jeung Kim hurried back to the United States on July 22, 1947, shocked and fearing for his life.[52] He grieved for Yŏ and lamented the loss of whom he saw as a political giant, the greatest leader Koreans had.[53]
Kim’s Political Activism on Behalf of the Neutral Unification of Korea
Upon his return, Kim resumed his activism through his writing. As the American military occupation period progressed, he sharply criticized the establishment of the separate South Korean government, directing much of his indignation at Rhee. The causes of his campaign against Rhee not only originated from Rhee’s stormy relations with the Reedley Group, but also because Rhee was foremost among advocates of a separate South Korean state, a position which Kim vehemently opposed, desperately seeking a solution to division.
One gets a sense of Kim’s distaste for Rhee in several letters he wrote to the New York Times in August 1947. In one letter published in August 12, Kim castigated right-wing leaders such as Rhee and Kim Ku (1876–1949) as “opportunists” who were “out to gain personal power and position regardless of the nation’s interest,” in stark contrast to the silent majority of moderates as well as the late “great liberal leader” Yŏ Un-hyŏng.[54] Later that month, in response to a letter published by the Times from Rhee’s confidant Robert T. Oliver, who dismissed Kim’s criticisms of Rhee as part of a “personal feud,” Kim shot back by stating that Rhee had sought to work with him several times, but that Kim had refused because he realized Rhee “was more ambitious for himself than for the Korean people.”[55]
Meanwhile, Kim continued to question whether holding elections in 1948 was the correct move. In a short essay in Far Eastern Survey in May 1948, right before the May 10 elections, Kim wrote that “Korean opinion is far from unanimous on the question of the advisability of holding elections at this time to establish a national government,” arguing that the extremely high voter registration rate was because “many of the people have been led by the forces at work to believe that they are under obligation to vote.”[56] Kim emphasized how many moderates such as Kim Kyu-sik (1881–1950) and even some rightists such as Kim Ku opposed the elections, favoring continued pursuit of a united government. Kim was prescient in his warning about what might follow the elections: “There are strong indications that, with the establishment of a government by the South, the North will defy it by proclaiming the communist regime the national government of Korea. Bloody civil strife would inevitably follow.”[57]
Of course, the separate elections in 1948 were indeed held and two separate Korean regimes were established, leading to the bloody, fratricidal Korean War in 1950. Despite this, Kim continued his tireless efforts at appealing to Korean and international leaders to bring the two Koreas together, even as the prospects grew dimmer over time.
Kim became especially notable for his promotion of neutralization of the Korean peninsula. American policymakers had debated the value of a neutral Korea since the 1940s, in which a united Korea would take neither side in the Cold War conflict, with the most notable proposal being Senator Mike Mansfield’s suggestion in 1960 of an “Austrian-type unification.”[58] It is possible that American officials’ speculation about a neutral Korea was influenced by Kim’s writing on the subject in The Voice of Korea, which included an essay in 1955 about neutral Austria as a model for Korea.[59] Moreover, Kim has been recognized as an influential voice, alongside former Tonga ilbo editor Kim Sam-gyu (1908–1989), in the debate within South Korea itself about Korean neutrality in the 1950s and 1960s.[60] This was especially the case during the Second Republic (1960–1961), established after Syngman Rhee’s resignation and exile in 1960, as there was growing interest and support among students and progressive intellectuals in negotiating a peaceful unification with the North Koreans.
Even after the Second Republic was quickly overthrown in 1961 by a military coup d’état led by Park Chung Hee (1917–1979; r. 1961–1979), who would soon become president and dictator of South Korea, Kim continued his efforts toward achieving neutral unification, most notably focusing on a letter-writing campaign aimed at the leaders of North and South Korea as well as the United Nations.[61] The North Korean leader Kim Il Sung (1912–1994; r. 1948–1994) even wrote back to Yong-jeung Kim twice in 1965 and 1967, expressing agreement with the need for unification to be determined by Koreans alone, although notably omitting mention of neutrality.[62] On the flip side, neither of the South Korean leaders to whom Yong-jeung Kim wrote, namely the Second Republic’s Prime Minister Chang Myŏn (1899–1966; Prime Minister 1960–1961) and the military dictator Park Chung Hee, ever responded to him directly.[63] Ultimately, given Kim’s premise that the two states had to first be simultaneously dissolved before a unified and neutral Korea could take their place, his advocacy fell on deaf ears and few in either regime took him seriously.[64]
Indeed, the idea of a neutral Korea did not lack detractors, both in Korea and in the United States. The pro-Rhee English magazine (edited by Rhee’s confidant Robert T. Oliver) Korean Survey devoted several articles explicitly critiquing the idea of neutralism in the 1950s, calling it a “moral irresponsibility,” based on the notion that there could be no true compromise when the aggression during the Korean War—and the Cold War in general—was one-sidedly coming from the communists.[65] Meanwhile, the South Korean government also shot down the idea of neutrality in a 1965 publication as an “impossible” path.[66] Outside of certain progressive outlets, most of the mainstream South Korean press were less than enthusiastic as well, asserting that neutralism would amount to enabling communization of the peninsula, given South Korea’s relative weakness and vulnerability, and expressing distrust of the communist regime to take the necessary steps to weaken or even dissolve itself.[67]
Despite the state and public’s longstanding opposition to neutralism amidst the polarization of the Cold War, after South Korea’s democratization in the 1980s and 1990s and the opening up of political discourse, Yong-jeung Kim has become increasingly recognized as an important proponent for the idea of a neutral and united Korea.
Furthermore, Kim’s work toward Korean unification coincided with his growing criticism of the authoritarianism of Syngman Rhee (r. 1948–1960) and later Park Chung Hee (r. 1961–1979), which filled the pages of The Voice of Korea as well as his numerous letters to the editor to the New York Times and Washington Post. Given Kim’s critique of South Korea’s authoritarian regimes as well as his consistent advocacy of neutral unification, he was accused by both the Rhee and Park regimes of either being communist or a communist sympathizer. Kim was also suspected as a pro-North leftist by much of the Korean American community.[68]
On the other hand, despite contacting Kim Il Sung several times, Kim was hardly a friend of the North Korean regime, having criticized its lack of democracy and its allegiance to the Soviet Union.[69] The Park regime, even while casting doubt on his true political motives, admitted that Kim was strongly “pro-American.”[70] Thus, retrospective views on Kim emphasize his nationalism that leaned neither to the left nor right.[71]
Kim died in a Los Angeles hospital on September 6, 1975. His last wish was for his ashes to be scattered at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Korea. His friend No Kwang-uk tried to fulfill Kim’s wish but was stymied by the authoritarian South Korean government at the time, for whom Kim had long been persona non grata (kip’i inmul).[72]
But Kim’s reputation began to change after South Korea’s democratization in the late 1980s and 1990s, especially due to the strenuous efforts of his granddaughter Kim Sŏng-hŭi, whose mother Kim Yŏng-bo was Kim’s eldest daughter through his first marriage to Kim Hyŏn-sŏng. Kim Sŏng-hŭi proposed and provided the materials for the publication of a biography of Kim in the progressive newspaper Han’gyŏre in 1990, which sparked renewed interest in Kim’s life in South Korea.[73] Song Kŏn-ho, one of Kim’s admirers and the longtime dissident journalist, who was the founding president of the center-left newspaper Han’gyŏre, greenlighted the publication of Kim’s biography.
In 1999, Kim Sŏng-hŭi’s sister Kim Sŏng-ok was finally able to bring their grandfather’s ashes to Korea, scattering some of them in the DMZ and the Imjin River before burying them with their grandmother Kim Hyŏn-sŏng’s remains. Eventually they were both interred in Taejŏn National Cemetery.[74] In 2000, during the Kim Dae Jung administration (1998–2003), Kim was recognized as a contributor to Korean independence (tongnip yugongja) and given the Order of Merit of National Foundation, Patriotic People Award (kŏn’guk hunjang aejokchang).[75] This was followed up by a special issue on Kim and his stance on Korean neutrality in the academic journal Yŏksa munje yŏn’gu in 2004.[76] In September 2021, Kim Sŏng-hŭi led the drive to hold an official commemoration for her grandfather.[77]
Written by Sungik Yang, 7/02/2022
Endnotes
[1] Yong-jeung Kim’s application file to Harvard indicates the birth date as April 2, 1898. See “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Student folder of Young J. Kim (UAIII 15.88.10 1890-1968, Box 2629), Harvard University Archives (hereafter "Student folder”), p. 1.
[2] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40: Minjok t’ongil chimnyŏm…’chungniphwaron’ palp’yo” [Discovering figures in Korean modern history, 40: Tenaciously striving for national unification . . . announcement of ‘neutralization discourse’], Han’gyŏre, September 14, 1990. One can find an online version of this at both Naver News Library and also at the Han’gyŏre website (accessed June 4, 2022): https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/legacy/legacy_general/L664547.html. See also Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong” [The life and the unification independence movement of Kim Yong-jung], Yŏksa munje yŏn’gu, Vol. 12 (June 2004): 14–15. Apparently, once he was more economically stable, Kim asked Kim Hyŏn-sŏng to come to America, to which the latter refused because of the demands of taking care of the family. Kim Hyŏn-sŏng also apparently told her husband not to worry about her even after learning about his marriage to Mary Ann Kim. See Kim To-hyŏng, “‘Hanbando yŏngse chungniphwa t’ongillon’ ŭi sŏn’gakcha, Kim Yong-jung” [Pioneer of the ‘discourse on the permanent neutralized unification of the Korean peninsula,’ Kim Yong-jung], P’ŭresian, September 2, 2021. Accessed May 17, 2022. https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/2021090217224422007.
[3] Marn Jai Cha, Koreans in Central California, 1903–1957: A Study of Settlement and Transnational Politics (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2010), 89.
[4] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40”; Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 15. Marn Jai Cha states that Kim and Song met in Los Angeles, where they were classmates in an English school, but Kim To-hyŏng and Chŏng Pyŏng-jun claim that Song was instrumental in helping Kim get to the U.S. See Cha, Koreans in Central California, 90.
[5] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 15. It is unclear what Kim’s visa or immigration status was in the United States after his arrival.
[6] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 15.
[7] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 16.
[8] This is based on the recommendation letter from his former teacher at Central Junior High School. See “Letter from Margaret M. Dooher to Admissions Office, January 28, 1928,” Student folder of Young J. Kim (UAIII 15.88.10 1890-1968, Box 2629), p. 5.
[9] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 16; “Kim Yong-jung yŏnbo” [Chronology of Kim Yong-jung], Yŏksa munje yŏn’gu 12 (June 2004): 95. See also “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 2.
[10] “Letter from Harry Whang to Committee of Admission, January 28, 1928,” Student folder of Young J. Kim (UAIII 15.88.10 1890-1968, Box 2629), p. 6.
[11] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 88–89; Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 16–17. There appears to be confusion in the precise year the business was formed, as Cha states that it was in 1925 whereas Chŏng cites Song’s memoirs in denoting the year as 1927.
[12] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 17.
[13] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 7.
[14] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 80–81.
[15] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 80–86.
[16] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 90; Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 14.
[17] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 90.
[18] See See Radcliffe College Class of 1958 yearbook, p. 82. Accessed May 17, 2022. https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:427992107$107i. For a congratulatory message by Yong-jeung Kim and his family on behalf of Dianne, see p. 105.
[19] Kim To-hyŏng, “‘Hanbando yŏngse chungniphwa t’ongillon’ ŭi sŏn’gakcha, Kim Yong-jung.” Kim Yŏng-bo later became the principal of a girls high school in Kŭmsan.
[20] At Harvard, Kim was listed as “Young Jeung Kim.” See Young Jeung Kim Special Student Day Page. UAIII 15.2.10 Box 3. Harvard University Archives (hereafter “Special Student Day Page”). For his part, Kim wrote his name in correspondences with the university as both Young Jeung Kim (such as in his application to Harvard) and Yongjeung Kim (in a letter requesting a statement regarding his dismissal from Harvard). See “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 1; and “Letter from Yongjeung Kim to Anne MacDonald, February 6, 1929,” Young Jeung Kim. Administrative Board for Special Students: General Correspondence. UAIII 5.75.2 Box 3. Harvard University Archives (hereafter “Administrative Board for Special Students”), p. 2.
[21] “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 1.
[22] It is still not entirely clear whether Kim had made his fortune prior to attending Harvard. According to Chŏng, Kim attended Harvard after profiting from his business with Song, although the turnaround was quite short between starting the business in 1927 (according to Chŏng) and attending Harvard in February the next year. According to Kim To-hyŏng’s initial report, however, Yong-jeung Kim had not yet started his business with Song in the 1920s, and was working as a manual laborer before enrolling in college. See Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[23] “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 1.
[24] “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 2.
[25] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[26] “Application of Young J. Kim, February 1, 1928,” Student folder, p. 1.
[27] Special Student Day Page.
[28] “Letter from Kathleen S. Beck to Registrar, January 28, 1928,” Student folder, 3–4.
[29] “Letter from Margaret M. Dooher to Admissions Office, January 28, 1928,” Student folder, p. 5.
[30] “Letter from Margaret M. Dooher to Admissions Office, January 28, 1928,” Student folder, p. 5.
[31] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 16.
[32] Special Student Day Page; “Letter from Yongjeung Kim to Anne MacDonald, February 6, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 2; and “Statement by Florence Abbott, Secretary to the Dean, February 27, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 4.
[33] “Statement by Florence Abbott, Secretary to the Dean, February 27, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 4.
[34] Special Student Day Page; “Statement by Florence Abbott, Secretary to the Dean, February 27, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 4; and “Letter from Dean A. F. Whittem to Y. J. Kim, April 23, 1928,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 1.
[35] “Statement by Florence Abbott, Secretary to the Dean, February 27, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 4.
[36] “Letter from Yongjeung Kim to Anne MacDonald, February 6, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 2; “Letter from Anne MacDonald to Dean A. F. Whittem, February 12, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students, p. 3. For more on Anne MacDonald, see “Late Admissions’ Secretary Served University 42 Years,” The Harvard Crimson, August 1, 1944. Accessed May 22, 2022. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1944/8/1/late-admissions-secretary-served-university-42/.
[37] “Letter from Yongjeung Kim to Anne MacDonald, February 6, 1929,” Administrative Board for Special Students p. 2.
[38] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 90.
[39] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 16.
[40] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 69.
[41] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 92.
[42] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 92–93.
[43] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 7.
[44] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 7, 86–88.
[45] Young Ick Lew, The Making of the First Korean President: Syngman Rhee’s Quest for Independence, 1875–1948 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014), 237.
[46] Lew, The Making of the First Korean President, 238.
[47] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 144.
[48] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[49] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 8.
[50] Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 29.
[51] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 101. Yŏ’s meeting with Yong-jeung Kim at Charles Ho Kim’s house is mentioned also in Pak T’ae-gyun, Hyŏndaesa rŭl pego ssŭrŏjin kŏindŭl: Song Chin-u, Yŏ Un-hyŏng, Chang Tŏk-su, Kim Ku [Fallen giants on the bed of modern Korean history: Song Chin-u, Yŏ Un-hyŏng, Chang Tŏk-su, Kim Ku] (Seoul: Chisŏngsa, 1994), 52.
[52] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 101; Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40”; Chŏng Pyŏng-jun, “Kim Yong-jung ŭi saengae wa t’ongil tongnip undong,” 30.
[53] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[54] Yongjeung Kim, "Conditions in Korea," The New York Times, August 12, 1947. In this letter, which was dated August 9, Yŏ’s name was stylized as Lyuh Woon Hyung.
[55] Robert T. Oliver, “Program for Korea,” The New York Times, August 15, 1947; Yongjeung Kim, “Report on Korea Defended,” The New York Times, August 30, 1947.
[56] Yongjeung Kim, “The Cold War: Korean Elections,” Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 17, No. 9 (May 5, 1948): 101.
[57] Yongjeung Kim, “The Cold War: Korean Elections,” 102.
[58] In K. Hwang, The Neutralized Unification of Korea (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1980), 106–113.
[59] See for example the following articles in The Voice of Korea: "Value of Neutralized Korea," ,” The Voice of Korea, Vol. 9, No. 168, March 1, 1952; "Neutralization Urged by Korean Group," The Voice of Korea, Vol. 12, No. 202, February 21, 1955; "Does Austria Point the Way for Korea?", The Voice of Korea, Vol. 12, No. 205, May 28, 1955; "A Further Plea for Reunification," The Voice of Korea, Vol. 18, No. 262, November 1960.
[60] Seuk-Ryule Hong, “Reunification Issues and Civil Society in South Korea: The Debates and Social Movement for Reunification during the April Revolution Period, 1960–1961,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Nov. 2002): 1241–1242.
[61] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 146–148; Republic of Korea (ROK) Ministry of Public Information (Kongbobu), Thus Neutralized Unification Is Impossible For Korea (Seoul: The Ministry of Public Information, 1965), 22–23; “Letter, Korean Affairs Institute President Yongjeung Kim to UN Secretary-General U Thant, Concerning Resolution to Korean Question,” November 25, 1968, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, "International incidents and disputes - Korea - correspondence (603.1)," Executive Office of the Secretary-General, S-0196-0002-03, United Nations Archives and Records Management Section (UN ARMS), New York, NY. Obtained for NKIDP by Charles Kraus. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/117212; and “Letter, Korean Affairs Institute President Yongjeung Kim to UN Secretary-General U Thant, Concerning ROK's involvement in the Vietnam War,” January 02, 1969, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, "International incidents and disputes - Korea - correspondence (603.1)," Executive Office of the Secretary-General, S-0196-0002-04, United Nations Archives and Records Management Section (UN ARMS), New York, NY. Obtained for NKIDP by Charles Kraus. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/117251.
[62] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 149–150; “Kim Yong-jung yŏnbo,” 98.
[63] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 149–150.
[64] Hwang, The Neutralized Unification of Korea, 144.
[65] See the following issues of Korean Survey: October 1953, November 1953, February 1959.
[66] For the South Korean government’s response, see ROK Ministry of Public Information, Thus Neutralized Unification Is Impossible For Korea. The book explicitly discussed and critiqued Yong-jeung Kim’s ideas on pp. 20–25.
[67] "Uri nŭn chungnip ŭl purwŏn” [We do not want neutrality], Tonga ilbo, December 9, 1953; "Chŏngch’i hoedam kwa kŭ taech’aek” [The political talks and their countermeasures], Kyŏnghyang sinmun, September 30, 1953. Yong-jeung Kim’s ideas about neutrality were apparently discussed by various progressive intellectuals and activists in the February 22, 1961 issue of the Minjok ilbo, which was shut down by the military junta just a couple days after they took power in May 16, 1961 for being a “pro-Communist” newspaper. The newspaper’s editor and publisher Cho Yong-su was executed later that year for suspected pro-North sympathies, making the closure of the Minjok ilbo the first “slip-of-the-pen incident” (p’irhwa sagŏn) to lead to capital punishment in Korea, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. See ROK Ministry of Public Information, Thus Neutralized Unification is Impossible for Korea, 24. See also "Minjok ilbo," Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. Accessed May 17, 2022. http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0020268.
[68] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[69] Cha, Koreans in Central California, 146–147.
[70] ROK Ministry of Public Information, Thus Neutralized Unification Is Impossible For Korea, 25.
[71] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40”; Cha, Koreans in Central California, 147.
[72] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.”
[73] Kim To-hyŏng, “Palgul Han’guk hyŏndaesa inmul 40.” For the backstory on the publication of this article, see Kim To-hyŏng’s article 31 years later: Kim To-hyŏng, “‘Hanbando yŏngse chungniphwa t’ongillon’ ŭi sŏn’gakcha, Kim Yong-jung.”
[74] Kim To-hyŏng, “‘Hanbando yŏngse chungniphwa t’ongillon’ ŭi sŏn’gakcha, Kim Yong-jung.”
[75] "Kim Yong-jung,” Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. Accessed May 13, 2022. http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0073611. See also "Kim, Yong-joong,” TaeHanin Kungminhoe Kinyŏm Chaedan [KNA Memorial Foundation]. Accessed May 16, 2022. https://knamf.org/kim-yong-joong/.
[76] For the Yŏksa munje yŏn’gu issue, see Vol. 12 (June 2004).
[77] Kim To-hyŏng, “‘Hanbando yŏngse chungniphwa t’ongillon’ ŭi sŏn’gakcha, Kim Yong-jung.”