Sharon Chung
Template:TOCnestleft Sharon Chung was welcomed as a Nodutdol member in 2010.
Sharon Chung is a second generation queerean, who grew up in the suburbs of LA and spent her teenage years living outside of Sacramento, CA. Sharon lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for five years before she moved to Seattle, Washington in 2002 and obtained a Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington in 2004. Sharon has been working as a medical social worker in the Emergency Department for the past three years and enjoys what she does. Sharon moved to NYC in this past November to continue her development as a medical social worker and to get involved with Nodutdol because of its awesome members, language classes, EEP program and NDD's community activism on both local and global levels.
NDD members got to know Sharon at the US Social Forum in June 2007 when we joined our ally organization Sahngnoksoo from Seattle, and converged in Atlanta as members of Korean Americans against War and Neoliberalism (KAWAN). Sharon was a member of Sahngnoksoo from its inception and served on the steering committee. Sahngnoksoo was Sharon’s first Korean community space that was not based out of church or religion and was inclusive and supportive of her queer identity. Additionally, SNS opened Sharon’s eyes and heart to the political and social struggles of Koreans living in Korea and abroad, e.g. Zainichi, and how Koreans living in the US can play an integral part of the people's struggles in Korea and internationally, as well as struggles of marginalized Koreans living in the US, e.g. adoptees, LGBTQ folks, immigrants and multi-racial folks. One of the things she misses most about Seattle is SNS, its presence in the Pacific Northwest, and the SNS members.[1]
Nodutdol
Sharon Chung is part of the Korean Education Exposure Program (KEEP) Planning Team (KPT) and was actively involved & in leadership with Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, and is now a supporting member of Nodutdol.[2]
KEEP alumni
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development June 16, 2016;
- obligatory post-event photo! — with JT Takagi, Betsy Yoon, Juyeon Rhee, Meejin Richart, Sharon Chung, Cori Irene Hook, Haruki Nathaniel Eduardo-Ha and Sooyoung Lee.
Korea Forum
According to Kent Mori, 80 people attended a forum on U.S. war threats and aggression against North Korea, Oct. 24. The event was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and took place at the University of Minnesota.
Highlights of the forum included three outstanding speakers who all have significant experience in addressing U.S. aggression on the Korean peninsula. Sharon Chung moved to Minnesota a year ago and is a supporting member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and on the Korean Education and Exposure Planning Team. Roy Wolff is a member of Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 and a U.S. Army veteran who was stationed in South Korea for 16 months (1955‐57). Wolf has traveled to both north and south Korea in the years since he was in the U.S. Army. Lastly, the panel included Christine Ahn, who video conferenced in from Hawaii. Ahn is a founder and International Coordinator of Women Cross the DMZ, and a co‐founder of Korea Policy Institute, Korea Peace Network and Korean Americans for Fair Trade. She is a policy analyst with expertise on Korea, globalization, militarism and women's rights.
Beginning the forum, Sharon Chung stated Western news media regularly spews distorted information about a “crazy north Korean dictator trying to blow up the world with nuclear weapons,” while ignoring the truly provocative actions coming from the U.S. government. She condemned actions like the U.S. and south Korean joint war exercises which simulate a nuclear war and assassination strikes on north Korea, and the forced and undemocratic deployment of the THAAD missile system.
Roy Wolff presented next. He emphasized the genocidal history of U.S. aggression on the Korean peninsula. He stated facts that are generally unknown about the Korean War (1950-1953) like, "every village and town in north Korea was destroyed! Every one!" and he repeated that "30% of the population of north Korea were killed, that's 3 million out of the 1950 population of 9 million." By way of example Wolf talked about the north Korean city of Wonsan, "a city of 70,000 people (in 1950) was shelled for 800 days in a row. At the end of those 800 days, only one wall of one building was left standing....and there were no people...many had fled, but thousands were killed." Wolf also showed that while the 1953 Armistice temporarily ended the 'hot' hostilities, it did not end the brutality of the continuing U.S. occupation of south Korea, which meant that U.S. military personnel committed 100,000 assaults, rapes and murders between 1953 and 1995.
The last speaker, Christine Ahn pointed out that "if there was ever a need for a mass mobilization in opposition to Trump and prevent a war on north Korea, it is now!” She argued that conditions appear to be good for developing movements both in the U.S. and in south Korea, with 68 to 80% of people in the U.S. opposing military action against north Korea, and over 80% of the people in south Korea wanting peaceful reconciliation with north Korea. [3]
Moim 2013
Yeong Ran Kim May 14, 2013 · Moim 2013 in LA!
With CJ Gi and Sunyoung Yang, Joyce Yang, Haewon Asfaw, Hosu Kim, Juyeon Rhee, Sam Seung Jung, Sharon Chung, Mark Ro Beyersdorf, Hyejin Shim, Slee Steph, Hyun Lee, Young Choe, June Kaft.