Seoul Asks U.S. to Ease Plight of Korean Students

SEOUL —  The South Korean government on Friday sought help from the Clinton administration to prevent Korean students from dropping out of American universities in the midst of the country’s financial crisis.

Over the past few months, some of the almost 40,000 Korean students in the United States have been unable to pay tuition, living costs or loans because the depreciating value of the South Korean won has made a U.S. education more expensive than it used to be.

On Friday, when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stopped here on a one-day visit, she was greeted with a plea from Foreign Minister Park Jung Soo for help in finding new ways to aid these Korean students.

One option discussed was a relaxation of visa requirements to make it easier for Korean students to find work in the United States and thus earn more money.

A State Department official said Albright made no commitments but agreed to consider the request.

Aides said Albright and Park also talked about ways of finding short-term financial help for Korean students from nonprofit organizations like the Institute for International Education.

The hardship caused by Asia’s financial crisis has been felt especially acutely in California, the No. 1 state hosting foreign students.

About 57% of the half-million or so young scholars from abroad come from Asia, many of them from homelands where a regional fiscal crisis has led to the sharp devaluations of currencies, big increases in unemployment and major upswings in domestic political unrest.

While these factors have led many Asian families to summon or keep home their studious young, it has caused real strains for those who are trying to continue their academic work in the United States.

“There are some students who went back home, and they are trying to transfer to universities in Korea,” said USC business major Sangjin Kim, former president of the Korean International Student Assn. on campus. “I heard that, generally, some of them were accepted and others were not.”

Kim said he estimates that 10% of all South Korean students at USC have gone back to Korea because their parents could no longer afford to finance their education.

He also said relaxed visa requirements to allow local students to find part-time jobs would be helpful. International students pay up to $40,000 a year for tuition, room and board, he said.

“There are many students who want to work, to earn enough at least for living expenses,” he said. “Even the Korean-based companies here don’t hire students.”

But the economic crisis back home has not affected him.

“I’m lucky because my parents saved money for me and my sister to finish our studies here,” the 21-year-old said. “I only have one year left. But if I were a freshman this year, I would have to go back.”

Others say they know friends who are taking heavier course loads to finish their education in less time.

“I have a personal friend who is pushing her course work because of her family’s financial situation,” UCLA history and political science major Susie Oh said.

The 21-year-old, who tutors Korean children in Koreatown, said her friend will try to finish her studies in three years, rather than four, because “she doesn’t want to be a burden on her family, and the prospect of her finding a job for an extra year doesn’t look good.

“It’s a difficult situation to be uprooted,” she said.

Much of Albright’s time in South Korea was devoted to trying to resolve continuing problems in finding the money to carry out the 4-year-old agreement aimed at stopping North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

In 1994, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program after the Clinton administration agreed to arrange new energy supplies, including fuel oil and a light-water nuclear power plant, for the North Korean regime.

The Times reported last month that this agreement is in jeopardy because of financing problems.

South Korea has agreed to pay about 70% of the $4 billion to $5 billion it will cost for the light-water reactor project, and Japan said it was willing to supply close to $1 billion. But in the midst of the Asian financial crisis, the governments in Seoul and Tokyo have delayed appropriating their shares of the money.

Officials in both countries say they want to find out who will pay the final 10%, about $500 million.

Meanwhile, the U.S. administration has also had its own difficulties in obtaining money from Congress for new supplies of fuel oil to North Korea.

U.S. officials say they had originally hoped that governments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East would help pay for these shipments, which cost about $60 million a year.

Despite repeated requests around the world, U.S. officials have been unable to come up with the money.

On Friday, State Department officials once again raised the possibility that the 1994 nuclear agreement with North Korea could fall apart if these problems are not resolved.

“There is an increasing sense of urgency,” a senior U.S. official said. If the 1994 deal falls apart, he said, North Korean officials “could begin to start up their [nuclear weapons] program again.”

Mann reported from Seoul and Abram from Los Angeles.