This small collection is comprised primarily of printed materials and manuscript drafts collected and created by Korean-American physician Won Tai Sohn (1914-2014), a close friend of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung (1912-1994). Items chiefly date from the 1970s to early 2000s and include articles, clippings, and drafts of Sohn's memoirs regarding his relationship with Sung. It also contains photographs, certificates, personal papers, and ephemera.

Won Tai Sohn was born on August 11, 1914, in Seoul, Korea. He moved to the United States and graduated from Yonsei Severance Medical School in 1945. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1949 and finished residency in pathology at Cook County Hospital in 1952. In 1965, Sohn completed a Clinical Cyptopathology course at Johns Hopkins. In 1972 he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he served sixteen years as a staff pathologist at Bishop Clarkson Hospital. He retired from both teaching and practicing medicine in 1986. In 1992, Sohn visited North Korea, rekindling his old friendship with the President at the time Kim Il Sung. In 2003, his book entitled "Kim Il Sung and Korea's Struggle: an Unconventional Firsthand History" was published by McFarland and Company.

5 Linear Feet 5 boxes

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of the Korean Heritage Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Korean Heritage Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Advance notice required for access.