Institutions
The South Korean government maintains the Embassy of South Korea, Washington, D.C.
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The Korean American community in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is the third-largest ethnic Korean community in the United States. [1] Most Koreans in the area live in Virginia and Maryland suburbs.
In 1949, the Embassy of South Korea opened in Washington, D.C. In 1960, there were about 400 to 500 ethnic Koreans in that city. Most of them were wives of former U.S. soldiers, students, and embassy staff. [2]
From 1990 to 2011, the Korean population in Fairfax County, Virginia, more than doubled. From 2001 to 2011, it increased by 13,000, or almost 50%. [2]
The 2010 U.S. Census found that 41,356 ethnic Koreans live in Fairfax County, Virginia, making up 3.8% of the county's population, [3] and over 60% of Virginia's ethnic Koreans. [4] In 2011, Steve Choi, president of the Korean-American Association of the Washington, D.C., Metro Area said the Korean population was under-counted because some Korean residents of Northern Virginia are illegal immigrants and because many are "very private people". As of 2010, the Koreans were Fairfax County's third-largest immigrant community. [3] As of the 2000 U.S. Census, 62% of the Koreans in Virginia were in Fairfax County. [2]
Almost 25% of the ethnic Koreans in Fairfax County live in Annandale and Centreville. Annandale houses a Koreatown in the city center, [4] active since the late 1980s. [2] in 2011, University of Maryland Asian American studies professor Larry Shinagawa said more Koreans in Fairfax County are engaged in business. [4] Dave Seminara of the Fairfax Times said that Choi and other Korean community leaders credited the growth of the Fairfax Korean community to the good Fairfax County Public Schools and the establishment of nonstop flights between Washington Dulles International Airport and Incheon Airport circa 2000. [3] Pyong Gap Min, author of Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues, wrote in 2006 that the suburban lifestyle and proximity to Washington, D.C., made Fairfax County an attractive destination for the ethnic Koreans. [2]
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 39,155 Koreans in Maryland; 40% of them were in Montgomery County, Maryland. [2] Shinagawa stated that Koreans in Maryland are more likely to have high education compared to those in Virginia and that they tend to work in banking, government, law, and science. [4]
As of 2006, many Koreans in Fairfax County, Virginia operate businesses in Washington, D.C., and work for the federal government of the United States. [2]
After Korean immigration began, many ethnic Koreans lived in northern Virginia while owning businesses in Washington, D.C. Liz Farmer of the Washington Examiner stated that during the early 1990s there were not very many Korean businesses in Annandale, Virginia. After the early 1990s, increasing numbers of Korean businesses opened in Virginia. Shinagawa stated that more Korean businesses opened in Virginia than in Maryland due to differing tax rates. [4]
The South Korean government maintains the Embassy of South Korea, Washington, D.C.
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The Washington Post printed an editorial arguing that Virginia state officials who were promising to take pro-Korean actions regarding the Sea of Japan (East Sea) dispute and the Fairfax County government establishing a World War II comfort women memorial were "pandering" and were not appropriate. [5]
As of 2011, four Korean-language newspapers, three Korean-language television channels, and one Korean-language radio station are in Northern Virginia. [3]
Fairfax County Public Schools offers Korean language classes at Fairfax High School Academy and at four elementary schools, open to both ethnic Koreans and non ethnic-Koreans. As of September 2010 the school district had 6,387 students who natively speak Korean. [3]
The Montgomery County, Maryland government has established Korean-American Day. [6]
For Protestants, the Korean Central Presbyterian Church is in Centreville. For Catholics, the St. Paul Chung Korean Catholic Church is in Centreville.
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. The county is predominantly suburban in character with some urban and rural pockets.
Annandale is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia. The population of the CDP was 43,363 as of the 2020 United States Census. It is home to the oldest and largest branch of the Northern Virginia Community College system, and to one of the D.C. area's Koreatowns.
Centreville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States and a suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 73,518 as of the 2020 census. Centreville is approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Washington, D.C.
The Washington–Baltimore combined metropolitan statistical area is a statistical area including the overlapping metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, three counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one county in south-central Pennsylvania. It is the most educated, highest-income, and third-largest combined statistical area in the United States behind New York City–Newark, NJ and Los Angeles–Long Beach.
A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula.
Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region radiates westward and southward from Washington, D.C. With 3,238,706 people according to 2022 Census estimates, it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area.
The Fairfax County Public Schools system (FCPS) is a school division in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. It is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. FCPS's headquarters is located in the Gatehouse Administration Center in Merrifield, an unincorporated section of the county near the city of Falls Church; the headquarters has a Falls Church address but is not within the city limits.
The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public library system comprising 8 regional libraries, 14 community libraries and the Access Services Library Branch, which removes barriers to library services for people with disabilities. FCPL is headquartered in Suite 324 of The Fairfax County Government Center in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.
Centreville High School (CVHS) is a public high school located in unincorporated southwestern Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, north of the town of Clifton and east of the Centreville CDP. Having opened in 1988 to serve the rapidly growing population of the Clifton/Centreville region, CVHS is the top of the Centreville High School Pyramid in Region 4 of the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) system. In 2010 the school was ranked as the 4th best high school in Fairfax County, and the 18th best high school out of 172 schools rated in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. On a national level, in 2010 CVHS was ranked as the 130th best of all high schools in the United States.
The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the DC area, Greater Washington, the National Capital Region, or locally as the DMV, is the metropolitan area centered around Washington, D.C., the federal capital of the United States. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country.
Area codes 703 and 571 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Northern Virginia, including the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park, as well as all of Arlington and Fairfax counties and parts of Fauquier, Loudoun, and Prince William counties. Area code 703 was created as one of the eighty-six original North American area codes in October 1947, and originally served the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. Area code 571 was created on March 1, 2000, to form an overlay plan with 703. The headquarters for The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia was at 703 East Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia.
New Grand Mart is a Korean supermarket chain primarily located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and the Greater Richmond Region, formerly having had locations in North Carolina and Georgia. It was founded in 2002 by David Min Sik Kang, a Korean-American entrepreneur who originally owned small Korean grocery stores in Washington, D.C. Grand Mart was owned by Annandale, Virginia-based Man Min Corporation prior to its disestablishment; in 2013, Green Paradise Enterprises bought two former Grand Mart locations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and rebranded the chain as New Grand Mart.
The Fairfax Times is a weekly newspaper published in Reston, Virginia which covers Fairfax County, Virginia.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, sometimes abbreviated as FCBOS, is the governing body of Fairfax County; a county of over a million in Northern Virginia. The board has nine districts, and one at-large district which is always occupied by the Chair. Members may serve unlimited number of four-year terms, as there are no term limits.
Sharon Schuster Bulova is an American politician who was chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in Virginia. A Democrat, she was first elected chairman in a special election on February 3, 2009. Bulova was reelected in 2011 and again on November 3, 2015. She retired at the end of her last term in January 2020.
Korean Central Presbyterian Church is an Evangelical Christian megachurch located in Centreville, Virginia, situated in the Washington D.C. in the US.
The Group 6A North Region was a division of the Virginia High School League. Along with the 6A South Region, it consisted of the largest high schools in Virginia. The region was formed in 2013 when the VHSL adopted a six classification format and eliminated the previous three classification system. It is a successor to the AAA Northern Region. The conference system was scrapped prior to the 2017–18 academic year, reverting the previous district. Regions were also renamed, with schools in the 6A North Region distributed into Group 6A Regions C& D.
There is a large Ethiopian American community in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. According to the Embassy of Ethiopia, this was the largest ethnic Ethiopian community outside of Africa.
Joan Belmar is an American artist. He is a painter who uses a three dimensional technique using painting and collage processes with both painted and untreated Mylar/paper strips in circles and curvilinear shapes variations which then produced different and changes degrees of transparency, as light and the viewer move in relation to the work. He was a Washington, DC Mayor's Art Award Finalist in 2007 as an outstanding emerging artist. The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities has also awarded him with an Artist Fellowship Program grant in 2009, and in 2011 he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD. He is a two-time recipient of the Maryland Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in Visual Arts: Painting, in 2010and 2013.
Asian Virginians make up 7% of Virginia's population, and up to at least 7.5% including those considered partially Asian. The population is at least 500,000. The largest Asian groups in Virginia are mainly Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Vietnamese. The state has the 8th highest percentage of Asian residents according to the 2010 Census, and is culturally connected and rooted with its Asian community.
He grew up spoiled in Vienna, Va., [...] His father, a South Korean immigrant [...]
