By Youngmin Choe

President George W. Bush has appointed two Korean Americans to high-level positions in his administration.

Shinae Chun, a 58-year-old former Director of the Illinois Department of Labor,became Director of the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau while John Yoo, 33, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley was appointed as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the White House Office of Legal Counsel.

"President Bush has once again made history, this time (by appointing) Shinae Chun as the first Asian-Pacific American woman ever to lead the Women’s Bureau," Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said. "This is tremendously exciting moment, not just for the Asian-American community, but for all women."

Chun has reached the highest position in the U.S. government ever achieved by a first generation Korean American woman who immigrated as an adult. The key to her success, she said, was that "I did not give in, but stood strong against the challenges to my philosophy and integrity."

As the director of the Illinois Department of Financial Institutions 1989 to 1991, she was the first Asian American cabinet member in the history of Illinois. The native of Masan, South Korea was also the first Special Assistant to the Governor for Asian American Affairs in Illinois from 1984 to 1989, which was the first position of its kind in the country.

In her new position, Chun said she would "do my best for the public welfare and expansion of rights in the interests of women."

Chun immigrated to the United States in 1965 after graduating from Ewha Womans University. She has an MA from Northwestern University and is currently the Managing Director of the trading consultancy ITR Corporation in Chicago.

Her husband is Dr. Kyong Chul Chun, a senior scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago.

John Yoo was born in Korea and came to the United States at the age of one with his parents in 1967.

In recent years he has written numerous articles for major publications throughout his professional career. From mid-November through mid-December 2000, he visibly established himself as an expert on constitutional law with appearances on national television including CNN by bringing to the American public a better understanding of the complicated vote-counting court cases.

The Harvard graduate said he hoped his appointment could be "an example of how Korean Americans can succeed in fields that require ease with the English language such as law, politics and journalism," and that the language barrier could be overcome.

Yoo worked as a reporter in Washington, D.C. before attending Yale Law School where he met his mentor Harold Hongjoo Koh, former assistant U.S. secretary of state for human rights with the Clinton administration. His first major article was a lengthy criticism of Harold Koh’s theories about the constitution and foreign affairs.

The two still keep in contact regularly. "I would not be here if it were not for him, in some way, because he was an example to me of that it was possible to be a law professor, and that I could write books and participate in the public debate. Koh was someone who went through all the things I’ve gone through now, but he went through it a generation earlier than I did. We have intellectual disagreements about some of the issues we work on, but he’s someone I turn to for advice, and he’s helped me a great deal," Yoo said.

Yoo has clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also served as General Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and represented the state of California and public interest groups in federal appellate litigation.

In his new position, Yoo will be working with Columbia law school professor John Manning, "a very good friend" with whom he has worked together before. The office is in charge of advising the government including the president, the attorney general and the different agencies about the constitution and the relations between branches of government.