Helen Kim: Mother of The Korea Times

Helen Kim was a pioneer in many fields. She was the first Korean woman to receive a doctoral degree and the first Korean woman to become a university president. Kim established The Korea Times, the nation’s first English newspaper. Kim poses in this file photo taken in 1968. It is released to the press for the first time in history. / Courtesy of Ewha Womans University

By Yun Suh-young

It was five months into the war.

The South Korean government had returned to its capital on Sep. 28 from Busan, three months after it retreated to the southeastern port city following the North Korea’s attack on Seoul on June 25, 1950.

The government was in chaos. The war was raging on. Reports about the war situation needed to be delivered minute by minute. The United States military and the United Nations’ allied forces had to be informed of what was going on.

An English paper was in desperate need. At that crucial juncture was born The Korea Times.

A new era of English journalism

The birth of the nation’s first English newspaper cannot be explained without this woman ― Helen Kim.

Kim (Korean name: Kim Hwal-lan) was director of the Office of Public Information for President Syngman Rhee’s government at the time.

She felt that an English newspaper was in urgent need during the period of crisis.

“A war is not just about fighting with weapons. We need to be able to send out accurate messages to the United States forces. A channel of rapid communication is urgent,” Kim told President Rhee, according to her autobiography.

However, President Rhee was reluctant. He said it was not something the government should be directly involved in. The President suggested that a newspaper be established independently.

To Kim, however, the matter was not something to be left in the hands of civilians. It was not the time where people could independently establish a company. During such chaos, it was simply impossible.

Kim discussed the matter with her friend Kim Sang-young who was the dean of Ewha Womans University at the time. He accepted the responsibility after listening carefully to her explanation. He started to work at once with some of his colleagues from the university.

“A corporation was organized, some capital gathered, and staff members were assembled,” Kim recalled in her autobiography, “Grace Sufficient ― The Story of Helen Kim (1964).”

A printing press was the most difficult thing to set up, but it was managed by the skilled labor of the type makers and typesetters, she said.

“From the Western point of view the press belonged not to the 20th century but to the 16th or 17th. Nevertheless the first issue of The Korea Times made its debut early in November. More than half of the copies were sent to the battlefront and the other half to civilians behind the lines,” she said.

Prior to the newspaper’s first publication, the staff of the preparatory committee debated about the name of the newspaper.

Some suggested that the paper be called Samil Times, commemorating the people’s March 1st independent movement against the Japanese colonial occupation.

The staff members wanted a different name for the paper as The Korea Times had been twice published before the 1950 publication, and they were both short lived.

The first one had been published in September 1945 but due to financial difficulties, the publication was discontinued by early 1946. The second The Korea Times was established in November 1949, but it stopped publishing after the fourth issue.

Due to this short history of the previous “The Korea Times,” the committee members were rather reluctant to name the third one the same, although it had no relationship whatsoever with the previous papers. They thought it as somewhat of a jinx.

But Helen Kim refused to give in. She insisted that the paper be called “The Korea Times” because it was the only newspaper that represented the country. So thus The Korea Times was reborn for the third time.

The third publication on November 1, 1950, began as a two-page tabloid. The paper was issued six days a week with Monday off. The price of the newspaper was 100 won. The monthly subscription rate was 1,500 won. The tabloid form continued until 1961 when the format changed to the current standardized (large) format, although the page numbers doubled to four.

Dr. Helen Kim did not interfere in the paper’s management and left the production to the working group although she was the founder. In November 25, she resigned from her post as the Director of the Office of Public Information to resume as Ewha Womans University’s president.

Meanwhile, the threat of the North Korean army pushed Seoul residents away from the capital again. In early January, 1951, the paper’s staff moved to Busan until its return to the capital in 1953.

The Korea Times ran under the capable leadership of Kim Sang-yong until the summer of 1952 when he died suddenly.

“None of us had even suspected that he was sick,” recalled Kim in her autobiography. “This was a hard blow to all of us, but particularly to The Korea Times, which was struggling for existence. Everyone was living from hand to mouth,” she said.

Having lost its central figure, The Korea Times had a very slim chance of being continued. After considering several options, then operators of the paper wanted to use her name as the editor and publisher. “So, assisted by the able staff, I assumed responsibility for the paper,” she said.

Founder’s leadership

Dr. Kim was appointed the president and publisher of the newspaper on July 5, 1951, and established the foundation for the newspaper to stand on its own.

“We were able to get a new building of our own, and moved out of the rented and impossible quarters. The business side was getting a little bit better in a year, and the important service was continued,” Kim said.

The paper received attention from readers with its neat layout despite the scanty production system.

The paper moved back to Seoul from Busan in November 1953.

But it now faced a different problem. The government began to pressure the newspaper to write favorably about the Rhee administration.

The newspaper had been slowly beginning to criticize the Rhee government for its dictatorship and the government became nervous about its overseas reputation. It had to take care of its international image. It tried persuading the newspaper with pressure and appeasement but that didn’t work.

The paper, under the management of Choi Wan-bok and general supervision of Helen Kim, did not give in. Kim refused to advocate the government’s policies.

The government finally let go of its support of the paper. The paper had been receiving government subsidies until then. The government now demanded the publication right be returned. Kim resisted. Instead of closing down the paper, the government created a new one, which could be favorable to its policies.

Due to increasing economic difficulties following the cut-off in aid, Kim turned the paper into an incorporated company.

Kim recruited Chang Ki-young to manage the paper, who was the then president of Chosun Ilbo, one of the oldest daily newspapers. Kim handed the presidency over to Chang in December 1953.

“I handed over to him with two conditions: to keep the independent point of view and to continue daily issues no matter how hard up he might get,” Kim recalled.

“Thus I parted with my cherished project in the spring of 1954. Mr. Chang kept up the two conditions and The Korea Times is still the only English daily in Korea with an independent point of view.”

The Korea Times lives on

Under the leadership of President Chang, the paper recovered steadily from its financial problems. In 1960, the paper did just as well as its rival English newspaper, The Korean Republic, which was funded by the government.

In 1964, an interesting section was introduced in the paper called “Thoughts of the Times.” The column intended to publish diverse opinions from foreign and local readers.

The first writer of the column was Helen Kim, the founder of the paper and then president emeritus of Ewha Womans University. The column became the most popular section in the newspaper ever since.

The Korea Times survived through a disaster in 1968 when a fire hit the newspaper’s main office in Junghak-dong, downtown Seoul. Even when the production facilities were completely destroyed, the paper continued to publish newspapers with mobile typewriters.

In 1974, the paper began printing the provincial edition so that readers in the provinces could receive news at the same time as those in the Seoul region. The provincial readership rate was at 42 percent.

In 1975, the paper began printing eight pages every other day and from 1978, it regularly began to print eight pages. Printing eight pages was quite revolutionary at the time for an English paper because the local newspapers only just began printing the same amount of pages. The increase in pages and the adoption of the provincial edition drew positive reaction from provincial and foreign readers.

The paper was had been long favored by the late President Kim Dae-jung. He read The Korea Times while he was imprisoned and remained a reader during his presidency (1998-2002).

The Korea Times had survived through wind and rain.

It had been threatened by the government, burnt down by fire, and went through economic hardships. But, despite the worries of the organizing committee in 1950 (that the paper may not live long with the jinxed name), it continues to live throughout the challenges.

Perhaps, it is with the spirit that Helen Kim founded ― the urge to deliver news and the passion for writing in English ― that the paper lives on.

Who is Helen Kim?

Kim Hwal-lan (1899-1970), also known as Helen Kim, entered the Ewha Hakdang, the predecessor to the current Ewha elementary, middle and high schools in 1907. She graduated from the four-year college course at Ewha Hakdang in 1918.

In 1924, she left the country to study at Ohio Wesleyan University where she graduated with honors. In 1925, she received a master’s degree at Boston University for philosophy.

In 1931, she received a doctoral degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School for philosophy. She became the first South Korean woman to receive a PhD.

In 1950, she founded The Korea Times and became the first woman publisher and president of an English newspaper. In the same year, she served in President Syngman Rhee’s government as a director of the Office of Public Information.

From 1939 to 1961, she served as the seventh president of Ewha Womans University. She was the first native to be appointed to the school’s presidency.

She received numerous awards for her contribution to enhancing women’s rights and fostering their education.