Korean Americans Orange County

The mother of a 23-year-old convicted of conspiring to murder her twin sister has broken her long silence with a letter to the judge begging for leniency. In the letter sent to Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore this week, Boo I. Kim said she bears responsibility for her daughter's actions because she abandoned the sisters at a young age, leaving them to grow up with relatives.

An installation ceremony for a monument sign of the Korean business district will be held Monday. Garden Grove council members Bill Dalton, Mark Leyes, Mark Rosen and Van Tran, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and other leaders are among those expected, along with representatives from the Korean Chamber of Commerce, Business District Committee and community. Last year the council designated Garden Grove Boulevard between Brookhurst and Fern streets as the Korean business district.

Through the windshield of the rented getaway car, Jeen Han watches the front door of the corner apartment. She sees the two boys she met only a few days earlier approach the place where her identical twin, Sunny Han, lives. She sees the older boy, the one holding the gun out of sight, knock. The door opens, and the boys, pretending to sell magazines, talk politely with a young woman. Then they push their way inside.

The City Council on Tuesday deferred a decision on allowing monument signs at the intersection of Beach and Garden Grove boulevards to highlight a proposed Korean district. Stanton recently inherited from the county a small portion of Garden Grove Boulevard from Fern Street to Beach Boulevard. A representative from a Korean business association said there are about 1,000 Korean businesses on Garden Grove Boulevard, including about 20 in Stanton.

After his wrongful arrest--and subsequent release--in connection with the shooting death of a California Highway Patrol officer in July, Young Ho Choi held a news conference in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles to discuss his ordeal. To Korean American leaders in Orange County, there was definitely something wrong with this picture, and it wasn't just the mistaken arrest.

A Stanton resident has founded a bipartisan political action group aimed at getting young Korean-Americans in the county involved in the political arena. Just two months old and with 20 members so far, Korean Americans for Political Representation will start off by supporting candidates in local Orange County races this fall, but the group hopes to expand into a statewide or national organization of concerned young voters, according to founder Robert Hyun, a recent Cal State Long Beach graduate.

Each Monday night this summer, a tiny classroom has been packed with Korean American doctors, merchants and other professionals eagerly scribbling down their teacher's every word. * In Korean, the instructor asks his students to repeat after him. "Cuanto cuesta," he says. The 70 pupils chant in unison.

The distinctive four-block strip of shops, restaurants and car dealerships along Garden Grove Boulevard remains the heart of Orange County's Koreatown. But these days you're just as likely to find Korean American businesses in Irvine, Fullerton or Buena Park. The steady migration of Korean Americans from Los Angeles to outlying suburbs, including communities in Orange County, was accelerated by the riots of 1992 and contributed to the growth of the local Koreatown.

Under a leaden sky, about 2,000 people gathered Saturday in the heart of Koreatown to appeal for racial harmony and vent anger at government officials who failed to quell the deadly Los Angeles riots. The boisterous demonstrators, who broke often into cheers and chants, were silenced only when they bowed their heads in prayer for Edward Song Lee, an 18-year-old college freshman who was shot and killed when he tried to protect a merchant from looters.

As artist Robert B. Krantz on Friday unveiled a three-foot-tall bronze artwork honoring Dr. Sammy Lee, the first Korean American to win a gold medal in the Olympics, Krantz offered an anecdote from Lee's coaching days. Known as a great but insistent diving teacher, Lee trained two-time Olympic gold-medal winners Bob Webster and Greg Louganis. He won a gold medal and a bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics in London and a gold in the 1952 Helsinki Games.

For most of his adult life, Garden Grove resident Kyung Kim has felt a schism in his heart because of the history of his homeland. Kim, now 62 and retired, left North Korea and much of his extended family when he was a boy, first moving to South Korea, then immigrating to the United States in 1970. Since then, politics and geography have separated him from his family and his heritage.

The distinctive four-block strip of shops, restaurants and car dealerships along Garden Grove Boulevard remains the heart of Orange County's Koreatown. But these days you're just as likely to find Korean American businesses in Irvine, Fullerton and Buena Park. The steady migration of Korean Americans from Los Angeles to outlying suburbs, including communities in Orange County, was accelerated by the riots of 1992 and contributed to the growth of the local Koreatown.

The distinctive four-block strip of shops, restaurants and car dealerships along Garden Grove Boulevard remains the heart of Orange County's Koreatown. But these days you're just as likely to find Korean American businesses in Irvine, Fullerton or Buena Park. The steady migration of Korean Americans from Los Angeles to outlying suburbs, including communities in Orange County, was accelerated by the riots of 1992 and contributed to the growth of the local Koreatown.

Through the windshield of the rented getaway car, Jeen Han watches the front door of the corner apartment. She sees the two boys she met only a few days earlier approach the place where her identical twin, Sunny Han, lives. She sees the older boy, the one holding the gun out of sight, knock. The door opens, and the boys, pretending to sell magazines, talk politely with a young woman. Then they push their way inside.

The mother of a 23-year-old convicted of conspiring to murder her twin sister has broken her long silence with a letter to the judge begging for leniency. In the letter sent to Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore this week, Boo I. Kim said she bears responsibility for her daughter's actions because she abandoned the sisters at a young age, leaving them to grow up with relatives.

The Korean American Federation of Orange County on Thursday honored Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) with an award recognizing his close ties with the Asian community. Royce won a Korean American Friendship Award for his work on the Congressional Asian Pacific Subcommittee; creating a districtwide advisory council for Asians; hosting community forums; and international efforts with North and South Korea. He was named Legislator of the Year for the second time since 1995.

City leaders are co-sponsoring a "living room dialogue" Wednesday to promote better understanding among the city's various ethnic groups. The 7 p.m. meeting at the Community Meeting Center is intended to bring together Korean and white business owners and residents to discuss ways to promote cultural understanding. Korean Americans own about 1,300 businesses in the city, and some residents have complained that the Korean-language signs have given the city a "foreign" feel.

The Korean American Federation of Orange County on Thursday honored Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) with an award recognizing his close ties with the Asian community. Royce won a Korean American Friendship Award for his work on the Congressional Asian Pacific Subcommittee; creating a districtwide advisory council for Asians; hosting community forums; and international efforts with North and South Korea. He was named Legislator of the Year for the second time since 1995.

After his wrongful arrest--and subsequent release--in connection with the shooting death of a California Highway Patrol officer in July, Young Ho Choi held a news conference in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles to discuss his ordeal. To Korean American leaders in Orange County, there was definitely something wrong with this picture, and it wasn't just the mistaken arrest.

Orange Police Chief John R. Robertson told Korean American community leaders Monday that he does not believe the recent officer-involved shooting death of Hong Il Kim had anything to do with the victim's race. "I don't think the minority issue or ethnicity came into this at all. . . . We certainly train our officers on how to deal with the different groups . . .