[Herald Interview] ‘Korea needs more disabled in Cabinet posts’

While South Korea’s infrastructure for people with disabilities has significantly improved in the past decades, the government still needs to appoint more of them to key posts in the administration, a former member of the US National Council on Disability said.

Pak Dong-woo, known to people around him as Joe Pak, who served as the first Korean American member of the NCD under US President Barack Obama's administration from 2009 to 2013, highlighted the importance of such inclusivity within the Korean Cabinet to better cater to the disabled community here.

“As a polio survivor myself and completely paralyzed in my left arm, I’ve experienced cruelty from my peers and children as I was growing up in Korea,” Pak, who spent his childhood here before moving to California with his family in 1970, told The Korea Herald in Seoul on Friday.

“South Korea’s infrastructure for the disabled community has improved significantly in the past decades. However, it needs to appoint more disabled people to key posts within the Cabinet,” the 72-year-old added.

Pak explained that he was able to deliver stronger messages regarding the needs of the disabled community because of his own disability.

“The audience would see that I am a member of the disabled community and would know that I would know the best about the needs of my own community,” he said, while showing off his left arm that was paralyzed at the age of 3.

An important step toward becoming a disability-friendly country is to expand inclusivity and empower the mobility of the disabled community, according to Pak.

“In the US, the goal of deinstitutionalization is becoming increasingly important for the disabled community. Mobility is another keyword that is always crucial for the policies for people with disabilities – it needs to be constantly improved for the goal of inclusivity.”

Pak has not only worked as a long-time advocate for people with disabilities, but for his own Korean American community and the Korean culture as well. After wrapping up his role within the NCD, which makes recommendations to the president and US Congress on policies affecting Americans with disabilities, he has been a close aide and senior field representative to California State Assembly member Sharon Quirk-Silva since 2013, a role that helped him spread Korea’s vibrant cultural legacy in the US.

In the past decade, Pak was the unsung hero behind the California State Assembly’s decision to pass bills designating certain days of the year to celebrate different aspects of the Korean culture.

Last year, he helped the designation of Oct. 21 as Hanbok Day in California to honor the history and elegance of traditional Korean clothing. This follows his move in 2019, in which he helped in the designation of Oct. 9 as Hangeul Day in the Sunshine State, the same day the holiday that commemorates the promulgation of Hangeul, or the Korean alphabet, in 1446, falls in Korea.

“Sometimes, people ask me why I'm doing this, because I think to some this seems completely pointless. But it's a way to honor the value of the Korean culture and history and spread its awareness," Pak explained.

Before entering politics as a policy adviser to former US President Obama in 2009, Pak worked as the director of external affairs for Pacific Bell Telephone, owned by telecommunications giant AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, for 26 years.

He earned his bachelor of arts from the University of Southern California and a master of business administration from the University of Phoenix.