After having four autonomous Korean organizations for several years, the elected officers of the Korean Students Association (KSA), Korean Americans for Culture and Community (KACC), Chun-sa Dance Troupe and Yisei magazine met Sunday night and officially decided to join together on equal terms.

The new conglomerate, currently known as the Harvard Korean Association(KA), will be officially recognized in January, officers said.

KA will incorporate KSA, KACC and Chun-sa, while maintaining close ties with Yisei.

The details of the new mission statement, constitution, budget and organizational structure, will be decided in a series of bi-weekly meetings leading up to January.

A desire on the part of the various Korean organizations for greater cooperation, interaction and efficiency led to the creation of KA, students said.

"All the organizations agree that KA should be carrried out, in terms of manpower and getting things done," said Albert S. Lee '98, a KSA board member.

He also stressed concerns about recruiting younger students as an important incentive for the decision.

"All the organizations want to have a united front, especially for the first-years," he said. "We're looking to foster leaders for the next five to six years."

To ease the transition, there will be KA-sponsored social events in the weeks without meetings.

These social events will include study breaks and outings that will offer members of the various organizations a chance to interact with each other, and to iron out differences of opinion about how to incorporate the groups under KA.

Last Saturday, KA hosted its first social event, a barbecue/picnic with traditional Korean food in the Malkin Athletic Center quadrangle. More than 50 people attended the meeting.

Marian Lee '99, head of Chun-sa, said she was extremely pleased with the KA event.

"In the past, there were many groups with everyone involved in their own community," she said. "It's great because now everyone can get to know each other."

Sang S. Park '98, a KSA board member, echoed the hopes of many in expressing his optimism about the future of KA.

"I just think it's a very positive thing," he said. "I'm very hopeful and certain that whatever from KA will take, it will be a good move."

According to Eric Cho '98, co-director of KACC, the merge has been an idea long in coming, with the various Korean organizations expressing the desire for unification for years. In certain respects, the formation of KA is a return to the time a decade ago when there was only one Korean organization, Koreans of Harvard-Radcliffe, he said.

Until this year, the organizations were unable to reconcile their differences and focused on separate aspects of Korean and Korean-American experiences.

Yisei-a bi-annual magazine addressing the concerns of Korean-Americans-was launched independently in 1988.

Koreans of Harvard-Radcliffe was the precursor of KSA.

KACC, a group devoted to traditional culture and also educational discussion of Korean and Korean-American issues, was formed independently in 1993.

KSA became a socially oriented organization, while KACC became a more culturally-and academically-oriented organization, with a discussion group and a traditional drumming group, members said.

Chun-sa, a traditional Korean fan dance group, was established five years ago.

Yisei is still debating to what extent it will be involved in KA. However, Yunsam Nam '99, editor-in-chief of Yisei, was emphatic about interacting with KA.

"It's important for Yisei to be in close contact with the other Korean groups to have greater support," she said. "Also, this way Yisei will be a more representative forum."

Cho said that despite the lack of unity in the past, he is confident that this time the new organization will last.

"Whatever the historical reasons for the break," he said, "our feeling is that things don't have to continue this way.