Koreans, Gang Leaders Talk Peace In South L.A.

LOS ANGELES - Hailing it as a breakthrough in race relations, a group of Korean-American merchants announced plans yesterday to explore ventures in black neighborhoods, including hiring black gang members to help manage some Korean-American businesses.

After a closed-door meeting with several gang leaders, officials of the 3,600-member National Korean-American Grocers Association said they would begin researching the possibility of establishing a Korean-American-owned bank in riot-torn South Central Los Angeles to make it easier for residents there to obtain loans.

The gang members, in turn, said they might begin their own Guardian Angel-style patrols to protect businesses in both Koreatown and South Central L.A.

Both groups endorsed a plan to stage cultural exchanges and market T-shirts to promote greater mutual understanding between blacks and Korean-Americans. The shirts would bear a Korean flag along with likenesses of red and blue gang bandannas.

"This means a total bond between the two groups," declared Rev. James Stern, who initiated the nearly 2 1/2-hour-long summit meeting and said his efforts are supported by more than 85 gangs, most of them Bloods and Crips.

Relations between Los Angeles' black and Korean-American communities deteriorated last November when grocer Soon Ja Du was granted probation in the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins. When rioting erupted last month after verdicts in the Rodney King beating case, Korean-American-run businesses in predominantly black areas - where blacks have been offered few jobs - were among the first to be looted and torched.

Since the riots, apprehensions between the two ethnic groups have continued to smolder, according to some black and Korean-American leaders.

The gangs represented at yesterday's summit constitute a mere fraction of the hundreds in Los Angeles County, which has an estimated 100,000 members. The discussions left several questions unanswered, including the number of gang members who might be employed or when they might begin patrolling black and Korean-American communities.

But Stern and others described the talks as an encouraging first step and said more discussions are planned Friday.

"We don't want minimum-wage-paying jobs - we need good jobs to support families," said "Liz," a Bloods gang member who attended the summit wearing a red bandanna, sunglasses and baseball cap to conceal his face.

At a news conference afterward, he expressed confidence that Korean-American merchants would come to appreciate the varied employment skills of veteran gang members who, he said, would rather work than fight.