China’s decision to go for a market economy in the 1990s was a positive turning point in the Asian-Pacific community because it requires peace, tolerance, openness to business ideas and minimal amounts of rules and regulations, former South Korean Prime Minister Dr. Lee Hong-Koo said in a lecture Tuesday night.
“Unless you have peace, a market society can’t move forward,” he said. Hong-Koo, the University’s 2006 Visiting Presidential Lecturer, delivered “The Emerging Asia Pacific Community and the American Role,” to more than 200 people in 282 Lillis. Hong-Koo served as prime minister in 1994 and 1995 and served as ambassador to the United States (1998-2000) and the United Kingdom (1991-1993).
Hong-Koo is on first-name terms with leaders from all over the world and is a member of Club Madrid, an independent organization composed of former presidents and prime ministers aimed at strengthening democracy in the world, University President Dave Frohnmayer said in his introduction of Hong-Koo.
“He does honor to the University and to the community with his presence,” Frohnmayer said.
Hong-Koo focused on the constraining factors to Asian-Pacific nations including, first and foremost, geopolitics. People can pack up and move elsewhere, Hong-Koo said, but countries have no choice but to adjust to their neighborhood. In South Korea’s case, it is surrounded by three very powerful countries in terms of territory, population and economy: Russia, China and Japan.
“I have to call it a pretty tough neighborhood,” Hong-Koo said.
Hong-Koo has worked in a variety of leadership fields, including politics, government service, newspapers and sports, but his longest-held job is as a University professor for 20 years.
“I feel more at home when I come to a university,” Hong-Koo said in an interview following the lecture.
Hong-Koo met with Frohnmayer and other faculty Tuesday morning to discuss the University’s East Asian Initiative, which aims to create a network with Korea, Japan and China to expand faculty and student enrollment to the University. Hong-Koo said he is proud that Frohnmayer and the University, a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, is interested in establishing strong ties to East Asian countries.
The former prime minister also met with a small Robert D. Clark Honors College class on Monday, where he said they discussed economics in relation to the environment.
“He brings students insight that goes well beyond that of textbook knowledge,” Frohnmayer said in his introduction.
Hyung Cha, co-director of the Korean Ducks magazine on campus, said Hong-Koo’s lecture was clear and detailed about the entire history of relations between Pacific Rim countries and explained how to work together under current circumstances.
There is now a division of two sets of membership in the Pacific Rim community, Hong-Koo said. Those are the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which includes the United States, and the East Asian Summit, which excludes the United States. Two issues the groups are debating are the growing U.S. deficit and how to deal with China’s increasing power. Sam Barber, a University senior majoring in international studies who lived in Korea for two years, also found Hong-Koo’s lecture informative, especially “the part considering the emphasis of the role of U.S. leadership.”
“Everybody is looking for renewed leadership in America,” Hong-Koo said. “I, for one, think the U.S. can do it.”
The United States has lost interest in developing economic trade with Asian countries in the last decade, in part because of its current role in the Middle East, Hong-Koo said.
“States like Oregon should take more action to let the U.S. know of rising Asia,” Hong-Koo said. “This century could be a Pacific century, and the U.S. could play a very large role.”

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