Ceremony held to commemorate James Lilly

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- A ceremony was held at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, here Thursday in memory of James Lilly, the late former ambassador to South Korea.

Lilly died of prostate cancer on Nov. 12 at the age of 81.
He served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and then China in the late 1980s when
the two Asian countries were in the throes of pro-democracy struggle.
In an autobiography "China Hands" published in 2004, he said he delivered a
personal letter of U.S. President Ronald Reagan to then South Korean President
Chun Doo-hwan that says Reagan opposed martial law to control the June
pro-democracy movement in South Korea in 1987.
Chun eventually gave in to the people's uprising and agreed to revise the
Constitution for the direct election of the president.
Lilly was also U.S. ambassador to China in 1989 when the Chinese military quelled
the pro-democracy demonstrations in the Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of
students and other protesters.
South Korea's U.S. ambassador, Han Duck-soo, attended the ceremony and remembered
Lilly as "a permanent friend of South Korea" who had "played a great role in the
development of the Korea-U.S. alliance."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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