wfn.org | Laney Leaving South Korea

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3403 notes).

Note 3403 by UMNS on Jan. 29, 1997 at 16:20 Eastern (2961 characters).

SEARCH: Korea, James T. Laney, Emory, ambassador
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally                    49(10-21-71B){3403}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Jan. 29, 1997

United Methodist James Laney leaving
post as ambassador to South Korea

                 by United Methodist News Service

     The Rev. James T. Laney, 69, an ordained United Methodist
clergyman, will be leaving South Korea early in February after
serving there as U.S. Ambassador since 1993.
     He will return to Atlanta and will have an office at United
Methodist-related Emory University where he served as president
from 1977 to 1993.  He was dean of the school's Candler School of
Theology from 1969 to 1977.
     Laney first went to Korea at the age of 19 and served a year
and a half in counter-intelligence work for the military.  In 1959
he returned with his family and worked five years at Methodist-
related Yonsei University and for the Student Christian Movement.
     He was the first American ambassador to South Korea to speak
Korean, an ability that endeared him to the nation's citizens.
     "He's been one of the most effective American ambassadors
we've had in Korea," Song Young Shik, a Deputy Foreign Minister in
Seoul, told the New York Times.
     After interviewing Laney, Times writer Nicholas D. Kristof,
said the ambassador's most vivid impression of Korea after
returning to the United States will be the importance in Korea of
education -- "and a wish that Americans might learn from that."
     "The thing that is so impressive is the high priority that
education has in all Korean families," Laney told the Times. 
"Obviously they have ability but it's also coupled with that
determination and that discipline the family imbues, and I stand
in great respect of that.  It's such a contrast with the laissez-
faire attitude with which most families in the United States
approach education."
     Speaking to a group of Methodist leaders at the ambassador's
residence in Seoul in 1994, Laney said he and his wife often are
asked why they are there.  "We're here because God has put us here
as peace makers not only as representatives of the United States
but also representing the highest ideals of Christianity.  It is a
joy to represent not only the U.S. Government but the Christian
community and the Methodist Christian community."
     Many observers credit Laney for helping the United States
turn from shunning North Korea to engagement.
     In the Times article, Stephen W. Linton, an American
specialist on Korea, said history will see Laney as the "first
ambassador to the whole peninsula rather than just to the southern
half." 
                              #  #  #
     
     EDITORS NOTE: Photo available upon request: (615) 742-5470

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