Korean-Americans brace for problems

An Unidentified man called into a show on Radio Korea here to say that his young son had been spat on by two students at school...

An Unidentified man called into a show on Radio Korea here to say that his young son had been spat on by two students at school, said Charles Kim, executive director of the local Korean-American Coalition, who was a guest on the show.

Soojin Lyuh, 25, a graduate student at the University of Southern California, was advised by relatives in Korea to 8220;stay home as much as possible and to not tell anyone that I was Korean.8221;

For Junette Kim 27, the images of Koreans standing with shotguns in front of their shops during riots in Los Angeles over a decade ago here are indelible, like the memories of her parents frantically closing their restaurant and collecting her early from school. 8220;We8217;re worried a lot about Koreans being harassed now,8221; she said on Wednesday.

Across the nation, Koreans have braced for harassment in the wake of the Monday shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus that left 33 dead, including Cho Seung-Hui, the Korean-born gunman.

Fearful of the backlash that Arab-Americans and others encountered after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and disquieted by what many Koreans interviewed perceive to be ominous portrayals of their culture8212;the stereotypical Asian loner becomes a killer8212;Koreans around the country have watched the events in Virginia unfold with particular unease.

Fears are particularly acute here in Los Angeles, home to roughly half a million people of Korean descent, many with deep and painful memories of the 1992 riots that brought down more than 2,000 Korean businesses and exposed deep fissures between Koreans other minority groups.

8220;The Korean-American community is really concerned,8221; said Kyeyoung Park, an associate professor of anthropology and faculty member of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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In cities with large Korean populations, a refrain with recurring themes could be heard this week.

8220;The first thing I thought was please, please don8217;t let him be Korean,8221; said Chon g Duk Chung 47, of New York. In Chantilly, Virginia, Sung Han Kim 36, said his friends have agreed that they should probably avoid bars dominated by whites.

Roughly 2 million ethnic Koreans live in the United States, where Korean emigration gained momentum with the adoption of thousands of war orphans after the Korean War.

8211;Jennifer Steinhauer