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1999 Van Fleet Award Honoree

WILLIAM J. PERRY
SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
FOR U.S.-NORTH KOREA POLICY REVIEW

FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

In 1998, having capped an outstanding career in public service by serving with distinction as U.S. Secretary of Defense, William J. Perry was asked by President Clinton to undertake a definitive review of U.S.-North Korea policy. This difficult and highly contentious policy had become the center of more acrimony and disarray than any issue since the Vietnam War.

Perry brought to this policy review the thoughtfulness, intelligence and integrity that have marked his entire career. He traveled extensively and consulted in detail with all of the concerned parties in the region, including the government of North Korea. The report that bears his name has now emerged as a highly respected blueprint for undertaking the extremely sensitive task of dealing with North Korea, and bringing long-range peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula.

In conducting this review, and constructing a blueprint for peace, Perry’s efforts have perfectly embodied the spirit of the James A. Van Fleet Award. Perry’s acceptance of this award increases its luster, and all those present on this occasion join in extending to Perry our congratulations and thanks for his outstanding service to the United States and the Northeast Asian region.

 

 

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1998 Van Fleet Award Honoree 

JEONG H. KIM
PRESIDENT OF LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES’ CARRIER NETWORK GROUP

Jeong H. Kim is president of Lucent Technologies’ Carrier Networks Group, where he is responsible for Lucent’s worldwide offering of data networking products to service providers. Kim assumed this key position in May 1998 upon Lucent’s $1 billion strategic acquisition of Yurie Systems, the high-tech communications equipment company that he founded in 1992. By 1997, Yurie Systems had been named by Business Week as America’s #1 Hot Growth Company.

Kim came to America in 1975, at the age of 14. Throughout his education—from high school through his Ph.D.—Kim worked full-time. Nonetheless, he was able to earn his Ph.D. degree in two years. Notably, Kim served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, and credits this military experience for giving him the leadership and management skills he has so clearly demonstrated in his business career.

Earlier this year, Kim was told of the plight of many Koreans studying in the United States who are facing great hardships, and even the potential loss of the opportunity to complete their education in the United States, due to the financial crisis in Korea. Kim clearly recognized the vital role that Koreans who have been educated in America are playing in Korea’s development, and in the strengthening of the Korean-American relationship. Once again, Kim demonstrated his capacity for leadership by making a donation of $250,000 to a scholarship fund The Korea Society is sponsoring to benefit Korean students impacted by the financial crisis.

This truly magnificent gesture of generosity, coming on top of his brilliant achievements in the field of technology, makes Kim an outstanding candidate for this year’s Van Fleet Award. It also is worthy of note that Kim is the first Korean American to receive this award. So it is fitting that he is a beneficiary of the American educational system who has built his great success on what he has learned and acquired in the United States. We are delighted to honor his great generosity in helping others to do the same.

 

 

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1998 Van Fleet Award Honoree

 

JONG-HYON CHEY
CHAIRMAN 
THE FEDERATION OF KOREAN INDUSTRIES

CHAIRMAN
SK GROUP

 

The late Jong-Hyon Chey, who was chairman of the SK Group and The Federation of Korean Industries, is hereby recognized with the greatest appreciation for his generosity and support of The Korea Society.

One of the distinguishing features of The Korea Society is its Intercultural Outreach Program (ICOP), which was established in 1994 and sustained over the last five years by a generous annual grant from The Federation of Korean Industries that was made possible by Chairman Chey. Through this program, over one hundred inner-city high school students from all over America have traveled to Korea to see firsthand what the Korean people have achieved in their own country. In addition, thousands of schoolchildren have been introduced, in their classrooms, to the arts and culture of Korea through this program.

Chairman Chey demonstrated great vision and leadership in his support of The Korea Society. Part of his legacy, in America, are the thousands of people who have gained a better understanding of Korea and a greater appreciation of the importance of the U.S.-Korea relationship through the program he so generously supported. Chairman Chey’s support has been so vital to the development of The Korea Society that he will always be remembered as one of its true founding fathers.

 

 

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1997 Van Fleet Award Honoree

 

PYONG HWOI KOO
CHAIRMAN 
KOREA INTERNATIONAL TRADE ASSOCIATION

 

Pyong-Hwoi Koo became chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in February 1994 after serving as its vice chairman from 1985.

Chairman Koo’s business career with the LG Group began in 1951, as a manager at Lucky Chemical Company. During his 40-plus years with LG, he held numerous positions of distinction including: director of Goldstar Co., president of Honam Oil Refinery Co., vice chairman of the Lucky-Goldstar Group and chairman of Lucky-Goldstar International Corporation. In 1995, he became an advisory board member of the LG Group.

Chairman Koo has been a dedicated member of a number of prominent economic and social organizations. He has served as chairman of the Korea-Canada Business Council, international president and Korea committee chairman of the Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) and chairman of the Bidding Committee for the 2002 World Cup in Korea (KOBID). His current appointments include: chairman of the Korea-U.S. Economic Council (KUSEC), chairman of the Korea-U.S. Business Council, chairman of the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board, and honorary consul general of the Republic of Peru.

Chairman Koo has received many awards over the course of his distinguished career, including Korea’s highest civilian honors for service to national development. He was awarded the Order of Industrial Merit (Gold Tower) in 1982, the Order of Civil Merit (Mugunghwa Medal) in 1993 and the Order of Sport Merit (Cheongryong Medal) in 1997. He was also awarded the Order of Merit for Distinguished Services (Great Cross) by the Republic of Peru in 1996.

Koo graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Seoul National University in Korea. In November 1993, he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of British Columbia.

 

 

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1996 Van Fleet Award Honoree

 

JAMES T. LANEY
AMBASSADOR OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA

 

During your extraordinary and wide-ranging career, there has been a strong and recurring theme: Korea. I remember, from our very first meeting in Atlanta in 1993, the enthusiasm with which you spoke of your first experiences in Korea as a young soldier in 1947-48. And how much more has followed!

Your teaching experience at one of Korea’s great institutions of higher learning—Yonsei University—from 1959-64 is well-remembered in Korea. A large group of friends and admirers from those days have watched your evolving career with enthusiasm, and welcomed your appointment as American Ambassador with joy.

Your service in Seoul has come at a time of great importance and rapid change. The ongoing efforts by Americans and South Koreans to establish constructive relations with North Korea have been difficult and challenging. You have served the Clinton administration, and the United States, extremely well. The key role you played in bringing about President Carter’s visit to North Korea in l994 was a vital ingredient in a situation that might otherwise have developed into a crisis of great magnitude. Your firm insistence last April that a meeting between President Clinton and President Kim Young Sam was vitally important also paid great dividends in terms of our relations with Seoul and the involvement of China in dealing responsibly with North Korea.

Your service in Korea, as a soldier, as a professor, and now as American ambassador, exemplifies what General Van Fleet had in mind when he created The Korea Society in 1957. These career achievements perfectly embody the spirit of the James A. Van Fleet Award which I am delighted to present to you now. Your acceptance of the award brightens its luster, and your accomplishments set a very high standard which we hope that others will seek to follow. Congratulations!

 

 

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