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Steven Sok-Yol Lee (이석렬 李錫烈 Yi Sŏng-nyŏl) papers

 Collection
Identifier: 3326

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Scope and Contents

The Steven Lee papers contains a box of mixed materials mostly dating from 1960s 2010s, including two scrapbooks, two photocopies of books, twelve folders of textual materials, ten plastic reels, and cassette tapes. The topic is mostly about Dong-A Ilbo's suppression of advertisements and the movement for the protection of freedom of the press. It also contains topics on the reunification of Korea, relations with the U.S. and Japan with Korea, and the future of Korea.

Dates

  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1962 - 2014

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

To view materials contact the East Asian Library. Joy Kim, Curator of the Korean Heritage Library: joykim@usc.edu

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of the Korean Heritage Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Korean Heritage Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Steven Sok-Yol LEE 이석렬 (李錫烈, Yi Song-nyol)

Mr. Steven Sok-Yol LEE (Yi Song-nyol) (1934-2021) was a former journalist for a leading South Korean newspaper, Tonga (Dong-A) Ilbo, from the 1960s to 1976. He covered the early presidency of Park Chung-hee, negotiations for the South Korea-Japan normalization treaty of 1965, and South Korean military deployment in the Vietnam War. He immigrated to the US in 1976 following Park’s crackdown on the freedom of the press, which targeted in particular the Dong-A Ilbo, the country’s most widely read newspaper at the time and his employer.

Settling in the Los Angeles area, Mr. Lee ran his own real estate brokerage business while continuing to write columns for local Korean-language publications such as the Chungang Central Daily (중앙일보 Joong Ang Ilbo) and Korean Dream, a magazine. In the 1990s, he returned to full-time journalism, serving two stints in Washington, DC for South Korea’s first newsweekly magazine and Radio Free Asia, writing about North Korea, reunification, and the political situation in Korea. He retired in 2000.

Birth date and place:

December 3, 1934 Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea

Education:

1958 BA, English, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 1962 Certificate, Journalism, Indiana University, Bloomington 1968 Certificate, Journalism, Thomson Editorial Study Center, Cardiff, UK

Career highlights:

1958-61 Politics Reporter, Yonhap Shinmun 1961-62 Politics Reporter, Seoul Shinmun 1962-65 Reporter, Dong-A Radio 1965-67 Saigon Correspondent, Dong-A Ilbo/Dong-A Radio 1967-69 Deputy Editor, Planning, Dong-A Ilbo 1969-72 Tokyo Correspondent, Dong-A Ilbo 1972-73 Deputy Editor, Foreign News, Dong-A Ilbo 1973-74 Features Editor, Dong-A Ilbo 1974-75 Head of Advertising, Dong-A Ilbo 1975-76 Administrator, Security and Unification Research Center, Dong-A Ilbo 1983-86 West Coast Correspondent, Voice of America 1989-92 Washington Correspondent, Sisa Journal 1998-2000 Editor, Korean Language Service, Radio Free Asia

Books:

1988 양키나라의 코리언: 미국은 희망의 땅인가 (전예원) 1995 가고 싶은 고향 만나고 싶은 사람들 (전예원)

Honors:

1966 In Heon Military Service Medal (인헌무공훈장), Republic of Korea 1966 Reporting, Inaugural Journalism Award, Korean Association of Newspapers

Family:

Married (Julia Kum-Ju LEE, retired nurse), two children (Charles Lee, Suzanne Chai), five grandchildren

Extent

2 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Korean

Abstract

The collection contains a box of mixed materials mostly dating from the 1960s to 2010s. Topics include military dictatorship's crackdown on the freedom of the press which targeted in particular the Dong-A Ilbo by suppressing its advertisements; reunification of Korea; relations between Korea, the U.S, and Japan during the South Korea-Japan normalization treaty of 1965.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in four series:

1 Cassette tapes 2 Printed materials 3 Scrapbooks 4 8mm plastic reels

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Jiin Park in September 2020. Processing included arrangement, physical re-housing of materials, and the creation of this finding aid.

Title
Finding aid for Steven Lee papers
Author
Jiin Park
Date
2020 July
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Most of the description for this collection is written in English. However, much of the item-level description also includes Korean transcribed from collection material.

Revision Statements

  • 2021 December: Finding aid updated by Bo Doub to document a box of unprocessed material found during the collection's relocation to offsite storage.

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries East Asian Library Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-1825 United States