Friends of Korea Webinars - 2020
[October 18, 2020] While covering the Korean Peninsula is always dynamic, the COVID-19 pandemic has added additional layers of complexity to the job of Seoul correspondent. Victoria Kim, the Seoul correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, joined Friends of Korea for a webinar to discuss her work reporting from Seoul during this era.
[May 28, 2020] Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Paul Courtright discusses his experiences in Gwangju during the May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980, as detailed in his new book, "Witnessing Gwangju." Courtright was in the countryside of South Korea in 1980 to help leprosy patients. On the way back home from his medical checkup, he was caught in the middle of what became known as the Gwangju Massacre, also referred to as the May 18 Democratic Uprising where it is estimated that over 600 people were killed. Caught between Peace Corps policy and the incidents he was witnessing, he decided to act. He escaped Gwangju to tell the US Embassy what was happening. This book is based on his eye witness account. His memoir is a record of the Gwangju Uprising as well as a poignant story about how the incident changed a young man's life in a very short period of time.
