FRIENDSHIP NIGHT
Officials tout ties between Pa., South Korea
WHITPAIN TWP. » More than half-century of friendship between the United States and South Korea was celebrated Thursday at a time that friendship seems more important than ever.
Dozens of sponsors and supporters of the 21st Century America-Korea-China Leaders Society met at a local restaurant for the second annual Friendship Night recognizing ties they hope will continue to grow stronger each year.
“Korea and Pennsylvania share a special bond, as we are linked at a critical juncture in Korea’s history,” said Kim Hyun-Jo, consul with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, New York.
Kim is among nearly a hundred Korean and local members of the collaborative group behind several regional efforts, including an annual recognition of Korean War veterans held each September at Parkside Place in Upper Gwynedd, and an effort to establish a Korean War Memorial and Peace Park in Montgomery Township.
The friendship night was organized by Bong Pil Yang, owner of a martial arts studio in North Wales and the driving force behind various efforts to increase the ties between both countries, including an accomplishment last year that has already shown tangible results.
“One year ago, Korea and Pennsylvania established a drivers’ license mutual recognition program. Since the program began in January 2017, over 700 new Korean people have been able to use their drivers’ licenses while driving in Pennsylvania,” Yang said.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony was held in August for the peace park, which has been discussed and planned since 2014 and will be located at Memorial Grove Park in Montgomery Township. Decorative bricks are now on sale that will be inscribed with names or messages and placed within the park,
"Korea and Pennsylvania share a special bond, as we are linked at a critical juncture in Korea’s history." — Kim Hyun-Jo, consul with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, New York
and Yang said construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2019.
“Establishing this park will further strengthen the alliance between Korea and Pennsylvania, and will serve as a reminder of our strong ties,” Yang said.
The Korean government is currently considering a request to provide roughly $300,000 of the estimated $1 million cost of the memorial and peace park, according to Kim, who received a proclamation of honorary citizenship from North Wales Mayor Greg D’Angelo and Ambler Mayor Jeanne Sorg.
Between recent provocative statements between North Korea and the United States, a planned visit by President Trump to South Korea next month, and the planned Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February 2018, his country
is in the news more often than ever, ties between the local area and South Korea date back decades.
“Philadelphia was a main place of activity for Korea’s independence movement in America, and Pennsylvania was home to more than 200,000 servicemen in the Korean War,” Kim said. “Now, Korea is Pennsylvania’s 10th largest export destination, and the sixthlargest importing country to Pennsylvania.”
State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24, said his family came to America in the 1740s, and he sees similarities between their stories and those of all immigrants, including immigrants from South Korea.
“My family came here for probably the same reasons other people come to Pennsylvania and America today: They come for the freedom of expression, of religion, of opportunity economically, and that’s what I think America is about, and needs to be about,” he said.
Montgomery County Commissioners President
Val Arkoosh said the Korean community in Montgomery County is 1.5 percent of the county’s population of roughly 825,000, three times the national average, and in Montgomery Township it is roughly 7.5 percent of the total.
“It’s a really growing, really vibrant, wonderful community,” she said.
In 2015, over 15 percent of Korean workers were self-employed, roughly three times the rate of other groups in the county, and the Korean community’s median household income and percentage of home ownership have grown faster than those of any other group in the county, she said.
“It’s a growing, thriving
community, that is really contributing to our economy, and we’re grateful for that,” she said.
County Commissioner Ken Lawrence described a trip he took to Seoul, the South Korean capital and called it one of the highlights of his life.
“A gentleman came up to me on the street there. He said, ‘Are you military?’ ‘No, I’m not.’ He said, ‘But you’re American?’ I said ‘Yes, I’m American.’ He said ‘Thank you.’ That was truly a magical moment,” Lawrence said.
“I’ve always experienced the culture here in Montgomery County, but to be able to go to Korea, and come back and be part of this, is very special. I will
be back next year, if I’m invited,” he said.
Frank Plantan, honorary consul general for the Republic of Korea in Pennsylvania, said the memorial and peace park is one way to remember the more than 2 million American service members who have served in Korea since the 1950s.
“It’s not just about the war. It’s about maintaining the peace on the peninsula, and nothing could be more important today,” he said. “Americans don’t know, for example, Koreans fought alongside Americans in Vietnam, and took huge casualties. Twenty-seven hundred Koreans were killed, more than any other country outside the United States. It’s not just this idea that we’re supporting Korea. Korea has supported the United States, globally, for a long time.”
Plantan’s son Ben said South Korea feels like his home away from home, as he has been traveling there for business since the early 1990s, and veterans of the Korean War are still honored there today.
“I have a business partner who’s almost 90 now, and was a corporal in the Korean War. People will stop dinner, and stand up, and thank him for his service. People get truly emotional,” he said.
Kim and Ben Plantan both said they will be closely watching the presidential visit to South Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, to see how the region works together to address the nuclear threats from North Korea.
“I think the concern people feel now is there’s the potential, with different actors involved, for things to suddenly escalate in ways they haven’t in the past. But we haven’t changed the way we’re doing business, haven’t changed the way we’re doing investments,” Ben Plantan said. “If you’re in Seoul, it’s a city of 30 million people, 30 miles from the North Korean border, and they’re in artillery range, and they have been for 60 years. I don’t sense a lot of panic or stress from my business partners in Korea — it’s really business as usual on the ground.”
Kim said he hopes the upcoming Presidential visit further strengthens the ties between regional allies, and said he expects the Olympics to shine a global spotlight on his home country, and the friends and allies it has around the world.
“I don’t think we have any concerns, between the United States and Japan and Korea, because we are always friends, and that’s what friends are for,” he aid.
For more information on the Korean War Memorial and Peace Park, visit www. KoreanWarMemorialPeacePark.com or search for “Korean War Memorial Peace Park” on Facebook.