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In the spotlight of this annual function was the unanimously-elected 19th Korea-America Friendship Award given to Dr. James T. Laney who served as the 16th U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 1993 to 1996. Prior to taking up his diplomatic position in Korea, he had served as a renowned American educator at Emory University in Georgia: dean of the Candler School of Theology (1969-77) and consecutively its 17th president (1978-93).
He has had three sojourns in Korea over the years. His irrevocable ties to Korea date back to 1947, when he spent a number of years with the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps. Having witnessed the hardships Koreans suffered in the war-ravaged era, he was determined to return to Korea to work as a Methodist missionary (1959-64), when he taught theology to Korean students as a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and where the youngest two of his five children were born.
The number 16 has been a special number in his life. The span of his presidency at Emory lasted 16 years. He has 16 grandchildren and he served as the 16th U.S. ambassador to Korea.
In addition to his devotions to Korea as a soldier, a missionary and a professor, he played vital roles in upgrading the U.S.-Korea alliance by wisely resolving a wide range of major issues without letup between the two governments. The top U.S. diplomat vigorously performed his public duties as an inspiring vanguard in strengthening the U.S.-Korea partnership in and out of Korea throughout the decades of his brilliant career.
Even though Laney was unable to join the gala dinner in Korea due to the worldwide inconveniences caused by COVID-19 and his condition for traveling at the age of 94, the mood for recognizing his lifelong qualification to be honored by the award was endorsed by participating dignitaries, not only by Christopher Del Corso, charge d'affaires ad interim at the U.S. Embassy in his welcoming remarks, but also by General Paul J. LaCamera, commander of the U.S.-Korea Combined Forces Command and his deputies in their congratulatory remarks.
It could not be forgotten that the Korean War (1950-53) left a record-breaking combat history with 76 participating nations involved during and after the battles on this small peninsula in Asia. North Korea, the assaulting communist side, was backed by eight countries including China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by 68 nations under the banner of the United Nations, principally the United States.
Even though the armistice agreement signed July 27, 1953 that ended inter-Korean fighting is still effective 68 years later, numerous violations of truce pacts have been initiated by the aggressive North, and they are still threatening the South and the U.S. forces stationed at Camp Humphreys in Pyongtaek, by upgrading its nuclear armaments continuously. Under such crucial circumstances, it is dangerous for the policy administrators in the South to support the pursuit of a full-fledged end-of-war declaration with the villainous North.
The 58-year-old KAA's annual night award event in 2021 reassuringly reminded us of the utmost importance of Korea's national security against the armed threats on the Korean Peninsula provoked by the warmongering North Korean regime, seemingly backed by the neighboring giant, China. As advocated by the awardee, Laney, during his ambassadorship in Seoul, the "Korea-U.S. military alliance forged in blood" should definitely be enforced until the North keeps its pledge of removing its own nuclear weapons, even under a possible new administration in South Korea following the 20th presidential election on March 9, 2022.
The writer (kexim2@unitel.co.kr) is a freelance columnist living in Seoul.
