Korean American
한국계 미국인
Hangukgye Migukin

Herbert Choy • Margaret Cho • Jim Yong Kim Juju Chang • Sung Kang • Harold Hongju Koh • Michelle Wie • Peter S. Kim • Ken Jeong Michelle Rhee •Sung Kim • Jamie Chung
Total population
1,706,822 0.6% of the US population (2010)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Los Angeles metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area, Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and other major American metropolitan areas.
Languages
Korean, English
Religion
Predominantly Christian (chiefly Protestant) Minority Buddhist or non-religious

This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or Hanja.

Korean Americans (Korean: 한국계 미국인, Hanja: 韓國系美國人, Hangukgye Migukin) are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea. The Korean American community comprises about 0.6% of the United States population, or about 1.7 million people, and is the fifth largest Asian American subgroup, after the Chinese American, Filipino American, Indian American, and Vietnamese American communities.^[1][2] The U.S. is home to the second largest Korean diaspora community in the world after the People's Republic of China.^[3]

While people living in North Korea cannot leave or emigrate from their country with rare exceptions, there are numbers of people of North Korean origin living in the U.S., primarily those who fled to the south during the Korean War and then later migrated to the United States. Also, since the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 allowed North Korean defectors to be admitted as refugees, about 130 have settled in the U.S. under that status.^[4][5]

Demographics[link]

According to the 2010 Census, there were approximately 1.7 million people of Korean descent residing in the United States, making it the country with the second largest Korean population living outside Korea (after the People's Republic of China). The ten states with the largest estimated Korean American populations were California (452,000; 1.2%), New York (141,000, 0.7%), New Jersey (94,000, 1.1%), Virginia (71,000, 0.9%), Texas (68,000, 0.3%), Washington (62,400, 0.9%), Illinois (61,500, 0.5%), Georgia (52,500, 0.5%), Maryland (49,000, 0.8%), and Pennsylvania (41,000, 0.3%). Hawaii was the state with the highest concentration of Korean Americans, at 1.8%, or 23,200 people.

Korean Americans have achieved a high demographic profile in some U.S. cities, including New York City.

The two metropolitan areas with the highest Korean American populations as per the 2009 American Community Survey were the Greater Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area (300,047) and the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area (201,393).^[6] The Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area ranks third, with approximately 93,000 Korean Americans.^[7]

The per capita Korean American population of Bergen County, New Jersey, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, 6.3% by the 2010 United States Census,^[8] is the highest of any county in the United States, with eight of the nation's top ten municipalities by percentage of Korean population;^[9] while the concentration of Korean Americans in Palisades Park, New Jersey, within Bergen County, is the highest of any municipality in the United States,^[10] at 52% of the population.^[8] Between 1990 and 2000, Georgia was home to the fastest-growing Korean community in the U.S., growing at a rate of 88.2% over that decade.^[11]

According to the statistics of the Overseas Korean Foundation and the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 107,145 South Korean children were adopted into the United States between 1953-2007.^[12]

In a 2005 United States Census Bureau survey, an estimated 432,907 ethnic Koreans in the U.S. were native-born Americans, and 973,780 were foreign-born. Korean Americans that were naturalized citizens numbered at 530,100, while 443,680 Koreans in the U.S. were not American citizens.^[13]

History[link]

In 1884, two American missionaries went to Korea: Henry Appenzeller, a Methodist, and Horace Underwood, a Presbyterian.^[1] Emphasizing the mass-circulation of the Bible (which had been translated into Korean between 1881 and 1887 by the Reverend John Ross, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary in Manchuria), the Protestant pioneers also established the first modern educational institutes in Korea.^[2] The Presbyterian Baejae School (배재고등학교) for boys was founded in 1885, and the Methodist Ehwa girls' school (이화여자고등학교) followed a year later. These, and similar schools established soon afterwards, facilitated the rapid expansion of Protestantism among the common people, and in time enabled the Protestant faith to overtake Catholicism as the leading Christian branch in Korea.

One of the first Korean Americans was Seo Jae-pil, or Philip Jaisohn, who came to America shortly after participating in an abortive coup with other progressives to institute political reform in 1884. He became a citizen in 1890, and earned a medical degree 1892 from what is now George Washington University. Throughout his life, he strove to educate Koreans in the ideals of freedom and democracy, and pressed the U.S. government for Korean independence. He died during the Korean War. His home is now a museum, cared for by a social services organization founded in his name in 1975.

A prominent figure among the Korean immigrant community is Ahn Chang Ho, pen name Dosan, a Protestant social activist. He came to the United States in 1902 for education. He founded the Friendship Society in 1903 and the Mutual Assistance Society. He was also a political activist during the Japanese occupation of Korea. There is a memorial built in his honor in downtown Riverside, California and his family home on 36th Place in Los Angeles has been restored by University of Southern California. The City of Los Angeles has also declared the nearby intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Van Buren Place to be "Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Square" in his honor. The Taekwondo pattern Do-san was named after him.

Another prominent figure among the Korean immigrant community was Syngman Rhee (이승만), a Methodist.^[3] He came to the United States in 1904 and earned a bachelor's degree at George Washington University in 1907, a master's degree at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1910. In 1910, he returned to Korea and became a political activist. He later became the first president of the Republic of Korea.

The first group of Korean laborers came to Hawaii in January 1903 to fill in gaps created by problems with Chinese and Japanese laborers. Between 1904 and 1907 about 1,000 Koreans entered the mainland from Hawaii through San Francisco.^[14] Many Koreans dispersed along the Pacific Coast as farm workers or as wage laborers in mining companies and as section hands on the railroads. Picture brides became a common practice for marriage to Korean men.

After the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910, Korean migration to the United States was virtually halted. The Immigration Act of 1924 or sometimes referred to as the Oriental Exclusion Act was part of a measured system excluding Korean immigrants into the US. In 1952 with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, opportunities were more open to Asian Americans, enabling Korean Americans to move out of enclaves into middle-class neighborhoods. When the Korean War ended in 1953, small numbers of students and professionals entered the United States. A larger group of immigrants included the wives of U.S. servicemen. As many as one in four Korean immigrants in the United States can trace their immigration to the wife of a serviceman. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Koreans became one of the fastest growing Asian groups in the United States, surpassed only by Filipinos.

In 1965, the Immigration Act abolished the quota system that had restricted the numbers of Asians allowed to enter the United States. Large numbers of Koreans, including some from North Korea that had come via South Korea, have been immigrating ever since, putting Korea in the top five countries of origin of immigrants to the United States since 1975. The reasons for immigration are many including the desire for increased freedom and the hope for better economic opportunities.

A wide range of Korean Americans

In the 1980s and 1990s Koreans became noted not only for starting small businesses such as dry cleaners or convenience stores, but also for diligently planting churches, with the same fervor as the early Puritan fathers who came to New England. With fervent piety and hope of that Promised Land, they would venture into abandoned cities and start up businesses which happened to be predominantly African American in demographics. This would sometimes lead to publicized tensions with customers as dramatized in movies such as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, and the LA Riots of April 1992.

Their children, along with those of other Asian Americans, would also be noted in headlines and magazine covers in the 1980s for their numbers in prestigious universities and highly skilled white collar professions. Favorable economics and education have led to the painting of Asian groups such as the Koreans as a "model minority". Throughout the 1980s until today, Korean Americans and other East Asian groups continue to attend prestigious universities in high numbers and make up a large percentage of the professional white collar work force including such fields as medicine, law, computer science, finance, and investment banking.

Los Angeles has emerged as a major center of the Korean American community. Its "Koreatown" is often seen as the "overseas Korean capital." It experienced rapid transition in the 1990s, with heavy investment by Korean banks and corporations, and the arrival of tens of thousands of Koreans, as well as even larger numbers of Hispanics.^[15][16] Many entrepreneurs opened small businesses, and were hard hit by the 1992 Los Angeles riots.^[17]

According to Park (1998) the violence against Korean Americans in 1992 stimulated a new wave of political activism among Korean Americans, but it also split them into two main camps. The "liberals" sought to unite with other minorities in Los Angeles to fight against racial oppression and scapegoating. The "conservatives," emphasized law and order and generally favored the economic and social policies of the Republican Party. The Conservatives tended to emphasize the political differences between Koreans and other minorities, specifically blacks and Hispanics.^[18] Abelmann and Lie, (1997) report that the most profound result was the politicization of Korean Americans, all across the U.S. The younger generation especially realized they had been too uninvolved in American politics, and the riot shifted their political attention from South Korea to conditions in the United States.^[19]

In recent years, ethnic Koreans such as Korean Mexicans and Korean Brazilians emigrated to the U.S. bringing further diversity to the Korean-American community. There has been an intermingling of Korean and Central American cultures together with some ethnic intermarriage between Koreans and Central Americans.

A substantial number of affluent Korean American professionals have settled in Bergen County, New Jersey since the early 2000s and have founded various academically and communally supportive organizations, including the Korean Parent Partnership Organization at the Bergen County Academies magnet high school^[20] and The Korean-American Association of New Jersey.^[21] Bergen County's Broad Avenue Koreatown in Palisades Park^[22] has emerged as a dominant nexus of Korean American culture,^[23] while the nearby Fort Lee Koreatown is also emerging as such. Bergen County's growing Korean community^[24][25][26] was cited by county executive Kathleen Donovan in the context of Hackensack, New Jersey attorney Jae Y. Kim's appointment to Central Municipal Court judgeship in January 2011.^[27] Subsequently in January 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie nominated attorney Phillip Kwon of Bergen County for New Jersey Supreme Court justice,^[28][29][30] although this nomination was rejected by the state's Senate Judiciary Committee. ^[31] According to The Record of Bergen County, the U.S. Census Bureau has determined the county’s Korean American population – 2010 census figures put it at 56,773 – has grown enough to warrant language assistance during elections.^[8] In May 2012, officials in the borough of Palisades Park rejected requests by two diplomatic delegations from Japan to remove a small monument from a public park, a brass plaque on a block of stone, dedicated in 2010 to the memory of comfort women, tens of thousands of women and girls, many Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II.^[32]

Languages[link]

Korean Americans speak English most often. In cases of newly immigrating persons who are not familiar with using English, they use Korean or sometimes English with the aid of Korean words, substituting a Korean word to an English word in a sentence. However, not to be confused, intentionally mixing words from the two languages (ie. "hand-phone" for cellular phone), known as "konglish" is generally spoken by Koreans residing in Korea, and causes social debates^[33].

Memorials and celebrities[link]

A number of U.S. states have declared January 13 as Korean American Day in order to recognize Korean Americans' impact and contributions.

Politics[link]

In a poll from the Asia Times before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, Korean Americans narrowly favored Republican candidate George W. Bush by a 41% to 38% margin over Democrat John Kerry, with the remaining 19% undecided or voting for other candidates.^[34] But, according to a poll done by the AALDEF the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2004 Presidential Election favored Democrat John Kerry by a 66% to 33% margin over Republican candidate George W. Bush.^[35] And another poll done by the AALDEF suggest the majority of Korean Americans that voted in the 2008 Presidential Election favored Democrat Barack Obama by a 64% to 35% margin over Republican John McCain^[35] In the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Korean Americans favored Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain, around 59% to 41%.^[36] However, there are still more registered Republican Korean Americans than registered Democrats. Korean-Americans, due to their Republican and Christian leanings, overwhelmingly supported California's constitutional gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.^[37]

Religion[link]

Korean Americans in America have historically had a very strong Christian heritage. Between 70% and 80% identify as Christian; 40% of those consist of immigrants who were not Christians at the time of their arrival in the United States. There are about 2,800 Korean Christian churches in the United States, as compared to only 89 Korean Buddhist temples; the largest such temple, Los Angeles' Sa Chal Temple, was established in 1974.^[38] A small minority, about 2 to 10% of Korean Americans are Buddhist.^[39] Reasons for the conversion of immigrant Korean families to Christianity include the responsiveness of Christian churches to immigrant needs as well as their communal nature, whereas Buddhist temples foster individual spirituality and practice and provide fewer social networking and business opportunities, as well as social pressure from other Koreans to convert.^[40] Most Korean American Christians do not practice traditional Confucian ancestral rites practiced in Korea (in Korea, most Catholics, Buddhists and nonbelievers practice these rites).^[39][41]

Cuisine[link]

"Korean American cuisine" can be described as a fusion of traditional Korean cuisine with American culture and tastes.^[42] Dishes such as "Korean tacos" have emerged from the contacts between Korean bodega owners and their Mexican workers in the Los Angeles area, spreading from one food truck (Kogi Korean BBQ) in November 2008 to the national stage eighteen months later.^[43]

Often, chefs borrow from Korean flavors and preparation techniques that they will integrate it into the style they are most comfortable with (whether it be Tex-Mex, Chinese, or purely American). Even a classic staple of the American diet, the hamburger, is available with a Korean twist – bulgogi (Korean BBQ) burgers.

With the popularity of cooking and culinary sampling, chefs, housewives, food junkies, and culinary aficionados have been bolder in their choices, favoring more unique, specialty, and ethnic dishes. Already popular in its own little subset populations peppered throughout the United States, Korean food debuted in the many Koreatowns found in metropolitan areas including in Los Angeles; Queens and Manhattan in New York City; Palisades Park and Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey; Annandale, Virginia; Philadelphia; Atlanta; Dallas; and Chicago. Korean cuisine has unique and bold flavors, colors, and style: spicy oddities (kimchi, kaktugi, sam jang), long fermented pastes (gochujang, ganjang, doenjang), noodle dishes (ramen and naengmyun), and fish cakes and raw seafood concoctions (raw octopus tentacles in spicy sauce, freshly halved sea urchin).

Notable Americans of Korean descent[link]

Academics[link]

• T. K. Seung, Professor of philosophy, government and law at the University of Texas in Austin
• Elaine H. Kim, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
• Jaegwon Kim, Professor of Philosophy at the Brown University
• Jim Yong Kim, Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights, former director of the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS department, co-founder of Partners in Health, 17th president of Dartmouth College
• Harold Hongju Koh, lawyer and legal scholar, and Dean of the Yale Law School
• Meredith Jung-En Woo, scholar on East Asian politics and economic development, and Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia
• Sebastian Seung, MIT Professor
• Chang-Rae Lee, professor of creative writing at Princeton University
• Tae-Ung Baik, Professor law at the University of Hawaii Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law, Legal scholar of International Human Rights Law and Korean Law

Arts[link]

• Tiffany Hwang, Korean-American Idol from girl group, Girls' Generation
• Derek Kirk Kim, award-winning graphic novelist, web-TV writer and director
• Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, poet, artist
• Daniel Chun, writer, co-executive producer of The Simpsons
• Christopher H.K. Lee, award winning film drector, producer, professor and publisher
• Nosaj Thing (Jason Chung), electronic musician
• Peter Chung, animator, creator of cult animated TV series Æon Flux
• Joe Hahn, member of multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning alternative rock band Linkin Park
• Richard E. Kim, author of The Martyred and Lost Names
• Suji Kwock Kim, poet
• Victor Kim, dancer of Quest Crew^[44]
• Jim Lee, best-selling comic book artist (e.g. X-Men, Batman, Superman) and co-creator (Gen¹³, WildC.A.T.s); co-founder of Image Comics
• Karen O, lead singer of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Lydia Paek, dancer of Quest Crew^[44]
• Nam June Paik, artist
• Il Lee, artist
• Linda Sue Park, author
• Lena Park, artist, R&B singer
• Emil J. Kang, non-profit executive, arts administrator, first Asian-American president of major orchestra, first Korean-American presidential nominee to the National Council on the Arts
• Jane Jeong Trenka, author of The Language of Blood
• Joy Dietrich, film director
• Priscilla Ahn, artist, singer-songwriter
• Chang-Rae Lee, author, professor of creative writing at Princeton University
• Ed Bok Lee, poet, author of Real Karaoke People

Business & Economics[link]

The 1997 U.S. Economic Census confirmed many of the anecdotal pictures of Korean business patterns that have been reported in Korean newspapers. With more than 155,000 businesses, Koreans rank third among APAs, after the Chinese and Indians. But their tendency to enter into business is one of the highest among all minority ethnic/racial groups. For instance, the rate of Korean business ownership is 71 percent higher than their share of the population, highest of all the major Asian ethnic groups.

• Wendy Lee Gramm, economics professor, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and wife of former Senator Phil Gramm
• Ho "Charles" Kim and Hyung-soon "Harry" Kim, owners of "Kim Brothers" farm in Reedly California, patent holders for the "Le Grand" and Sun"Grand nectarine.
• David J. Kim, founder of C2 Education, named one of the top 30 young entrepreneurs, by Entrepreneur Magazine.
• Shelly Hwang and Young Lee, founders of Pinkberry
• Do-Won Chang and Jin Sook, founders of Forever 21
• Michael Yang, Founder & CEO of MySimon Become.com
• David Chang, Michelin-star chef and restaurant owner

Entertainment[link]

• Dumbfoundead, Battle rapper and hip-hop artist.
• David Choi, singer
• John Cho, actor
• Esther Ku, comedian
• Margaret Cho, comedian, fashion designer, actress
• Smith Cho, actress
• Kelly Choi, model, television presenter
• Keong Sim, actor
• Justin Chon, actor
• Jamie Chung, actress
• Joe Hahn, musician
• Dennis Oh, actor
• Tiger JK, musician
• Jay Park, singer, rapper, b-boy, actor, dancer, and former leader of 2PM
• Ken Jeong, comedian, actor
• Brian Joo, singer
• John Park, singer, semifinalist of American Idol and runner up of Superstar K2
• Tae Bin Im, singer, member of 1TYM
• Kevin Woo, singer, MC, member of U-KISS
• Eli Kim, singer, MC, member of U-KISS
• Megan Lee, singer, actress
• Ailee, singer, actress
• Sunny, singer, radio DJ, member of Girls' Generation
• Tiffany Hwang, singer, MC, theatre actress, member of Girls' Generation
• Jessica Jung, singer, stage actress, member of Girls' Generation
• Krystal Jung, singer, actress, member of f(x), sister of Jessica Jung
• Nicole Jung, singer, member of Kara
• Rebecca Kim, rapper, ex-member of After School
• Stephanie Kim, singer, member of The Grace
• Michael Kang, filmmaker The Motel, West 32nd
• Sung Kang, actor
• Tim Kang, actor
• Daniel Dae Kim, actor
• Yul Kwon, contestant and the first non-White and the first Asian-American winner of Survivor: Cook Islands
• Alexander Sebastien Lee, actor, filmmaker
• Bobby Lee, comedian
• C.S. Lee, actor
• Will Yun Lee, actor
• Grace Park, actress
• Lena Park, singer
• Soon-Yi Previn, actress, wife of Woody Allen
• Brian Tee, actor
• Patricia Ja Lee, actress,
• Steven Yeun, actor
• Aaron Yoo, actor
• Rick Yune, actor, model (first Asian-American model to work for leading fashion labels such as Versace and Polo Sport)
• Karl Yune, actor, model (brother of Rick Yune)
• Sarah Chang, violinist virtuoso
• Stephen Sohn, model
• John Myung, bassist of progressive metal band Dream Theater
• Yunjin Kim, actress in Shiri (film) and Lost
• James Kyson Lee, actor
• Yuna Ito, singer, songwriter, actress
• Tim Hwang, ballad singer
• L.Joe, mischievous rapper from Teen Top
• Heejun Han, singer and American Idol finalist

Journalism[link]

• Alina Cho, CNN correspondent
• Liz Cho, American weekday anchor
• Michael Kim, ESPN anchor
• Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times reporter
• K.W. Lee, founder of "Koreatown" weekly
• Julie Chang, Fox 5 New York entertainment reporter
• Juju Chang, Good Morning America Co-host on ABC

Judiciary[link]

• Herbert Choy, Attorney General for the Territory of Hawaii (1957-1958), first Korean American judge in the federal court system - US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1971-1984)
• Brian G. Kim, Judge District Court of Maryland for Montgomery County Baltimore.
• Jae Y. Kim, Hackensack, New Jersey attorney appointed to Central Municipal Court judgeship in Bergen County, New Jersey in January 2011.

Literature[link]

Military[link]

• Colonel Young Oak Kim, a highly-decorated U.S. Army combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, was the first non-white to command an Army combat battalion in U.S. history.
• Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Choy, former officer in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, the first Asian American to serve as a United States federal judge and the first person of Korean ancestry to be admitted to the bar in the United States.
• Commander Choi Hee-dong, first Korean-American to captain an Aegis-equipped destroyer in the US Navy.
• Lieutenant Daniel Choi, is a former American infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq war during 2006-2007. He became an LGBT rights activist following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 and has been publicly challenging America's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which previously prevented lesbian, bisexual and gay (LBG) service members from serving openly.

Politics[link]

• Jason Kim, serving as deputy mayor of Palisades Park, New Jersey in May 2012
• Gene Kim, California, founder of the Koreatown Association and Annual Koreatown Parade in Los Angeles; (Retired) Los Angeles Police Department Commissioner
• John J. Choi, County Attorney, Ramsey County, Minnesota
• Jun Choi, former mayor of Edison, New Jersey
• Herbert Choy, U.S. Federal judge
• Sukhee Kang, mayor of Irvine, California
• Mark L. Keam, member of the Virginia House of Delegates
• Harry Kim, a former mayor of Hawaii County, Hawai'i
• Jay Kim, former Republican Congressman from California and the first Korean American elected to Congress
• Yul Kwon, lawyer
• Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools
• Paull Shin, Washington State Senator
• Michelle Park Steel, California Board of Equalization Member
• Sam Yoon, first Asian-American Boston City councilor
• John Yoo, attorney and former official in Bush's Justice Department

Science/Technology[link]

• Benjamin W. Lee, theoretical physicist (influenced development of the Standard Model)
• Jeong H. Kim, President of Bell Labs, CEO of Lucent Technologies
• Peter S. Kim, President of Merck Research Laboratories

Sports[link]

• Eugene Chung, NFL football player
• Jeanette Lee "the Black Widow", professional pool player
• Naomi Nari Nam, figure skater
• Anthony Kim, professional golfer
• Jim Paek, NHL hockey player
• Richard Park, NHL hockey player
• Myong Sok Namkung-Mayes, first female taekwondo grandmaster
• Michelle Wie, professional golfer
• Jane Park, professional golfer
• Christina Kim, professional golfer
• Simon Cho, short track speed skater
• Kevin Na, PGA professional golfer
• John Lee, First NFL football player

See also[link]

	Asian Americans portal
	Korea portal

• Asian American
• Demographics of the United States
• Greater Dallas Korean American Chamber of Commerce
• Hyphenated American
• Korean adoptees
• Korean American writers
• Korean-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce
• Koreans
• Koreatown
• Koreatown, Manhattan
• Koreatown, Los Angeles
• Koreatown, Fort Lee
• Koreatown, Palisades Park
• List of Korea-related topics
• List of Korean Americans
• List of U.S. cities with significant Korean American populations

References[link]

External links[link]

• KoreanAmericanStory.org: A Non-profit Organization Dedicated to Preserving Stories of Korean-Americans
• Arirang - Interactive History of Korean Americans
• AsianWeek: Korean American Timeline
• Ask A Korean!
• KoreAm Journal
• Korean-American Community and Directory
• Korean American Foundation
• Korean American Heritage Foundation
• Korean American Historical Society
• Korean American History
• Korean American literature
• Korean-American Ministry Resources (Listing of Korean-American churches)
• The Korean American Museum
• Early Korean Immigrants to America: Their Role in the Establishment of the Republic of Korea

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Jim Yong Kim 김용 金墉
President of the World Bank Group Elect
Taking office July 1, 2012
Nominated by	Barack Obama
Succeeding	Robert Zoellick
President of Dartmouth College
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2009
Preceded by	James Wright
Succeeded by	TBD
Personal details
Born	(1959-12-08) December 8, 1959 (age 52) Seoul, South Korea
Spouse(s)	Younsook Lim
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Iowa Brown University Harvard University
Profession	Physician

Jim Yong Kim, also known as Kim Yong (Hangul: 김용; Hanja: 金墉; born December 8, 1959) is a Korean-American physician and the president-elect of the World Bank. He has been President of Dartmouth College since 2009. He was formerly the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a co-founder and executive director of Partners In Health.

On March 2, 2009, Kim was named as the 17th president of Dartmouth College, a position he formally assumed on July 1, 2009, becoming the first Asian-American president of an Ivy League institution.^[1][2]

On March 23, 2012, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would nominate Kim as the next president of the World Bank. On April 16, Kim was elected to head the World Bank and will take office on July 1.^[3]

Background[link]

Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1959, Jim Yong Kim moved with his family to the U.S. at the age of five and grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. His father taught dentistry at the University of Iowa, while his mother received her PhD in philosophy.^[4] Kim attended Muscatine High School, where he was valedictorian, president of his class, and played both quarterback for the football team and point guard on the basketball team. After a year and a half at the University of Iowa, he transferred to Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in 1982. He was awarded an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1991, and a PhD from Harvard University, Department of Anthropology, in 1993.^[5] He was among the first enrollees of Harvard's experimental MD/PhD program in the social sciences.

Career[link]

Partners in Health (1987–2003)[link]

Jim Yong Kim, along with Paul Farmer, Todd McCormack, Thomas J. White and Ophelia Dahl, co-founded Partners In Health (PIH) in 1987. The organization began with radical new, community-focused health care programs in Haiti, which executed treatments based on local needs and by training community members to implement them. By the early 1990s, the program in Haiti was serving more than 100,000 people. It achieved remarkable success treating infectious diseases at low cost, spending $150 to $200 to cure tuberculosis patients in their homes, treatment that would have cost $15,000 to $20,000 in a U.S. hospital. Kim was instrumental in designing treatment protocols and cutting deals for cheaper, more effective drugs.

The PIH model was expanded to Peru in 1994. By 1998, extremely successful results curing both common and serious ailments prompted the World Health Organization to embrace the model, and support the adaptation of community-based care to impoverished communities around the world. Particular success in treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) prompted international organizations to rededicate efforts to the eradication of the disease, and in June 2002, the World Health Organization adopted prescriptions for dealing with the disease that were virtually the same as PIH had used in Peru. Kim's work with PIH to treat MDR-TB was the first large-scale attempt to treat the disease in a poor country, and the efforts have now been replicated in more than 40 countries around the world.^[6][7]

PIH now employs more than 13,000 people in 12 countries. Kim left the organization as Executive Director in 2003.^{[5][8][9][10]}

World Health Organization (2003–2006)[link]

Kim left PIH in 2003 to join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an adviser to the director-general. In March 2004, he was appointed as director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS department, after having success creating programs to fight the disease at PIH. Dr. Kim oversaw all of WHO’s work related to HIV/AIDS, focusing on initiatives to help developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention, and care programs. This included an ambitious “3x5 initiative” that was designed to put three million people in developing countries on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005. The goal was not met until 2007, but according to the WHO, served to push the treatment strategy for AIDS in Africa further and faster than could have otherwise been hoped.^[11][12] As of 2012, the program has treated more than 7 million Africans with HIV.^[13][14]

Harvard University (1993–2009)[link]

Beginning in 1993, Dr. Kim served as a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, eventually holding professorships in medicine, social medicine and human rights. At the time of his departure in 2009, Kim held positions as Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.^[11][12][15]

Over his two decade career working to improve health in developing countries, Kim has been involved in a number of research and academic efforts. In recent years, Kim spearheaded the development of a new field focused on improving the implementation and delivery of health interventions in poor communities around the world. His programs operate with the philosophy that progress in developing more effective global health programs has been hindered by the paucity of large-scale systematic approaches to improving program design. This new field will rigorously gather, analyze, and widely disseminate a comprehensive body of practical, actionable insights on effective global health delivery. Towards these goals, Kim co-founded the Global Health Delivery Project, a joint initiative of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Social Medicine and the Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. The global health field case studies produced by this project form the core of a new global health delivery curriculum now taught at Harvard School of Public Health. Kim’s team also developed a web-based “community of practice”, GHDonline.org, to allow practitioners around the world to easily access information, share expertise, and engage in real-time problem solving.^[16]

During his time at Harvard, Kim published numerous articles for leading academic and scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Science, and others; and contributed to several books. An expert in tuberculosis, Kim also chaired or served on a number of committees on international TB policy.^[15]

Cover of The Dartmouth, March 2, 2009, Global Health Leader Jim Yong Kim is Dartmouth's 17th President.^[17]

Dartmouth College (2009–present)[link]

In March 2009, Kim was named the 17th President of Dartmouth College, becoming the first Asian American to assume the post of president at an Ivy League institution. Kim has overseen the development of several innovative programs at Dartmouth, utilizing his past experience in health care and international affairs. In January 2010, Kim helped partner Dartmouth students and faculty with the organization he co-founded, Partners In Health, and other organizations, to respond to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, forming the Dartmouth Haiti Response. The initiative resulted in over $1 million in donations, the delivery of 18 tons of medical supplies and 25 volunteer medical professionals to Haiti, as well as hundreds of student volunteers contributing on campus.^[18][19] In April 2010, Kim launched the National College Health Improvement Project (NCHIP), which convenes a number of expert institutions to develop quantitative methods to address student health issues. The project launched its inaugural program, an effort to address binge drinking, in April 2011.^[20][21] In May 2010, Kim helped secure a $35 million anonymous grant to establish the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science. The Center creates a groundbreaking new field of graduate study, fostering international collaboration between researchers and medical practitioners to design, implement, and scale new models of high-quality low-cost care.^[22][23] In 2012, following considerable concern^[24] and an extended effort by Kim to address sexual violence on campus, Dartmouth adopted a new campus-wide initiative to educate students on the importance of bystander intervention in sexual assault cases as part of a larger Sexual Assault Awareness Program.^[25][26]

Controversies during tenure[link]

In 2011, Kim was criticized for refusing to release the college's budget, prompting the passage of a resolution by faculty demanding more details.^[27][28] Kim answered this criticism by releasing a large supplementary report on the budget and holding a public meeting with faculty who afterward expressed satisfaction with the response.^[29] However, Kim did not address a request by the Student Assembly asking for access to information about all budget items exceeding $10,000.^[28] In 2011, a handful of editorials appeared in Dartmouth's student newspaper expressing dissatisfaction with Kim's presidency, with one describing Kim as "unpopular among many students these days."^[30][31] His leadership has also been criticized in the wake of a hazing scandal, which resulted in charges against the fraternity and the creation of a task force to address hazing; and amidst comments from some that Kim did not spend enough time on campus.^[32][33]

World Bank Presidency[link]

President Obama announces Dr. Jim Yong Kim as nominee to lead the World Bank.^[34]

On March 23, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Jim Yong Kim to become the next president of the World Bank.^[35] That same day Jim Yong Kim sent a letter addressed to the Dartmouth Community stating that the position was "one of the most critical institutions fighting poverty and providing assistance to developing countries in the world today. After much reflection, I have accepted this nomination to national and global service" and that "if I am elected, our Board will take appropriate steps to ensure continuity of leadership and determine the timing of a search. For now, I remain president of Dartmouth."^[36]

On April 16, 2012, the World Bank officially elected Kim as its next president.^[37] He is the first Bank leader whose professional background is not in the political or financial sectors, and the first to have previous experience with dealing with issues of global poverty and experience with bringing healthcare in underdeveloped countries.^[38]

In Statement from Dr. Jim Yong Kim regarding his selection by the World Bank's Executive Directors as 12th President of the World Bank he said that the World Bank will Delivers more powerful results to support sustained growth; prioritize evidence-based solutions over ideology; amplifies the voices of developing countries. ^[39]

Personal life[link]

Kim, who is married to Younsook Lim, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Boston, has two children, a son, Thomas, who was born in 2000, and a second son who was born on February 27, 2009, a few days before the announcement of Kim's presidency at Dartmouth College. He is actively involved in a variety of sports, including basketball, volleyball, tennis, and golf.^[15]

Kim also enjoys hip hop music.^[40]

Board memberships and honors[link]

Kim received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003,^[41] was named one of America's 25 Best Leaders by US News & World Report in 2005, and in 2006 was listed as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.^[42] He serves on the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health, the NGO formed to develop the Health Impact Fund proposal. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies.^[15] Kim was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.^[43]

References[link]

Publications[link]

• Farmer Paul E, Kim JY. Community-based approaches to the control of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: Introducing “DOTS-plus”. British Medical Journal 1998; 317:671-4.
• Becerra MC, Bayona J, Freeman J, Farmer PE, Kim JY. Redefining MDR-TB transmission “hot spots.” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2000; 4(5):387-94.
• Farmer Paul, Leandre F, Mukherjee JS, Claude M, Nevil P, Smith-Fawzi MC, Koenig SP, Castro A, Becerra MC, Sachs J, Attaran A, Kim JY. Community-based approaches to HIV treatment in resource-poor settings. Lancet 2001; 358(9279):404-9.
• Farmer Paul, Leandre F, Mukherjee J, Gupta R, Tarter L, Kim JY. Community-based treatment of advanced HIV disease: Introducing DOT-HAART (Directly Observed therapy with highly active antiretroviral therapy). Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2001; 79(12):1145–51.
• Mitnick C, Bayona J, Palacios E, Shin S, Furin J, Alcántara F, Sánchez E, Sarria M, Becerra M, Fawzi MCS, Kapiga S, Neuberg D, Maguire JH, Kim JY, Farmer PE. Community-based therapy for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Lima, Peru. New England Journal of Medicine 2003; 348(2):119-28.
• Gupta Raj, Irwin A, Raviglione MC, Kim JY. Scaling up treatment for HIV/AIDS: Lessons learned from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Lancet 2004; 363(9405):320-4.
• Kim Jim Yong, Farmer P. AIDS in 2006 – Moving toward one world, one hope? New England Journal of Medicine 2006; 355:645-7.
• Kim Jim Yong. Unexpected political immunity to AIDS. Lancet 2006; 368(9534):441-2.
• Kim Jim Yong. A lifelong battle against disease. U.S. News and World Report 2007; 143(18):62-4.
• Kim Jim Yong. Toward a Golden Age- Reflections on Global Health and Social Justice. Harvard International Review 2007; 29 (2): 20–25.
• Kim Jim Yong, Farmer Paul. Surgery and Global Health: A View from Beyond the OR. World Journal of Surgery 2008; 32(4): 533–6.
• Kim Jim Yong, Millen JV, A Irwin, J Gershman (eds.). Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000.
• Jain Sachin H, Weintraub R, Rhatigan J, Porter ME, Kim JY. Delivering Global Health. Student British Medical Journal 2008; 16:27.[2]
• Kim Jim Yong, Rhatigan J, Jain SH, Weintraub R, Porter ME. From a declaration of values to the creation of value in global health: a report from Harvard University's Global Health Delivery Project. Glob Public Health. 2010 Mar; 5(2):181-8.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jim Yong Kim

• Dartmouth Office of the President
• Profile at the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
• Partners In Health
• Lecture by Jim Yong Kim on the Future of Global Health.
• Interview with Bill Moyers and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, September 11, 2009
• Dartmouth Inauguration Webcast, September 22, 2009
• Jim Yong Kim on Charlie Rose
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Jim Yong Kim in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jim Yong Kim collected news and commentary at The New York Times