By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Former U.S. Ambassador to Korea James R. Lilley (1986-89) died in Washington, D.C., last Thursday local time from complications related to prostate cancer. He was 81.
Lilley was born in 1929 in Qingdao, China, to an oil executive father and a schoolteacher mother. He grew up there, paving the way for his expertise on the country, until his family moved back to the U.S. at the outbreak of the World War II.
Graduating from George Washington University, the former ambassador was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in which he spent the next 30 years covering various Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
His post in Korea between 1986 and 1989 was his second diplomatic post after Taiwan. Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were in office, and public revolts against the non-democratic government ran high.
Many Koreans remember him as the envoy who visited Cheong Wa Dae to dissuade then-President Chun Doo-hwan from declaring martial law in June 1987 when the nation was in great turmoil amid the popular call to introduce a direct presidential election system.
In his autobiography, "China Hands," published in 2004, Lilley recalled the 6.10 Democratization Movement in 1987, a rally against then-President Chun's appointment of Roh as his party's candidate for the presidential election slated for the same year.
People stood against Chun's appointment, as it was perceived as handing Roh the presidency.
Lilley delivered to Chun then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's hand-written letter pleading against the appointment.
After Korea, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to China.
While in China between 1989 and 1991, he witnessed the 1989 Tiananmen protest, came forward publicly to criticize the crackdown and sent reports of unfolding events directly to President George W.H. Bush, with whom Lilley had a special connection.
When Bush learned of Lilley's passing, he said in a statement that he was "a most knowledgeable and effective ambassador, who served with great honor and distinction."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently on a tour of Asia, also called him one of the finest diplomats of all-time who served during "one of the most difficult periods in our bilateral relations" with China.