Sungsoo Kim [Obituary] Hangwoo Lee (1930-2021), a quite Quaker and an active Peacemaker

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Sungsoo Kim

[Obituary] Hangwoo Lee (1930-2021), a quite Quaker and an active Peacemaker

In 1985, I began to attend the Quaker Meeting in Seoul, South Korea where I met Hangwoo Lee. One Sunday afternoon, after a Meeting for Worship, Lee gave a talk about his visit to North Korea. As my father was a North Korean refugee, I listened to Lee's fascinating talk with great interest. At that time, South Korea was ruled by a military dictatorship, thus Lee's talk on North Korea was a forbidden topic. Naturally Seoul Friends were very cautious about possible interference by the military regime.

Lee was a Korean-American Quaker and visited South and North Korea nearly every year and whenever he came to Seoul Quaker Meeting, we talked about North Korea. Thus, he was blacklisted by the military regime of South Korea.
In 1960, together with a well-known Korean Quaker, Ham Sok Hon (1901-1989), Lee founded a Korean Quaker Meeting in Seoul. In 1968, Lee went to Pendle Hill (Quaker Study Center in the USA) to study Quakerism for a year then he settled in Philadelphia with his family. He worked there as a computer analyst and retired in 2003, when he was 73 years old. However, he did not even own a home of his own and he spent most of his wages and holidays working for the peaceful reunification movement of two Koreas.

Rather than going on family holidays with his wife and children, he met government officials and lawmakers of the USA, North Korea, China, Japan, and Europe and with them, he discussed, appealed and sought a way for the peaceful reunification of two Koreas. Moreover, Lee spent most of his wages on publishing reports on Korea's peaceful reunification issues and sent money to help South Korean dissidents and political prisoners.

He was not a good speaker, but he was a quiet man of action. He spoke through his life.
In 1974, he founded a 'Meeting for Suffering for Koreans in the USA to help and support South Korean dissidents and their families
In 1982, as one of the delegates of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), he visited North Korea and tried to promote peace between the two Koreas. Since then, he has visited North Korea more than 40 times with this goal in mind. 
In 1986 he founded the 'Korea-US Public Relations Center' in the USA, where he published a 'Korean Report' in the English language, which was widely read among the US lawmakers, officials, activists, and journalists as well as the overseas Korean experts.
In 1987, he also founded the 'Korean Support Network (KSN)' in the USA and through the KSN, he not only supported South Korea's democratization movement but also raised public awareness among American politicians, officials, and scholars in relations to South Korean democracy.
In 1993, when North Koreans suffered famine, as one of delegates of AFSC, he visited North Korea and supported agriculture facilities there.
In 1995, Lee founded the 'Peaceful Reunification Institute for two Koreas' in the USA, and the institute published various papers on peaceful reunification issues of two Koreas.

Lee laid the foundation for the peaceful relations between the two Koreas and due to his relentless contribution, in June 2000, South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, was able to visit North Korea and held a summit meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jung-il. It was the first summit meeting of the two Korean leaders since the cease fire of the Korean War in 1953. Subsequently in October 2000, Kim Dae-jung received the Nobel Peace Prize, thanks to Lee's invisible toil and effort.

In 2009, Lee led an International Conference on 'Ending of Arms Race in the Asia-Pacific Region.'
Due to his contribution, in 2011, Lee received the 'Korean Reunification Culture Award' from South Korea.

In 2013, after 45 years of life in the USA, Lee returned to South Korea for good. After that I was able to meet him every week at Seoul Quaker Meeting. During this time, Lee gave me courage, comfort and inspiration while I was engaged in a lawsuit against a right wing government minister. Thanks to his kind support, in 2016, I won this legal battle. http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201606031507077&code=710100&fbclid=IwAR3KjQri4-g9X-tfQVThmjrvLpI024-2sgqMGiqm4PitJjRmjIsHtHDXpsc
In August 2020, Lee received the 'Liberation and Peace Award' from the South Korean government on recognition of his contribution for peaceful reunification of two Koreas.
In September 2021, when I rang him by an international telephone call, he was on his sickbed and he said to me , "Sungsoo, let's live cheerfully!" He passed away in the morning of 16th October 2021 of prolonged cancer. To me, he was like a father figure, and he talked to me through his life. An active peacemaker and quiet Quaker, Hangwoo Lee, I miss you!

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* Sungsoo Kim is a member of Seoul Monthly Meeting and Leicester Quaker Meeting of Britain Yearly Meeting of Religious Society of Friends. He is author of 'Biography of a Korean Quaker, Ham Sok Hon.'
** Photos: Hangwoo Lee with Sungsoo Kim