Dong Moon Joo is a

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

businessman. A member of the

Unification Church The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...

, he is best known as the president of the

Unification Church of the United States The Unification Church of the United States is the branch of the Unification Church in the United States. It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when missionaries from South Korea were sent to America by the international Unification Church' ...

affiliated newspaper ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

''. During the presidency of

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

, Joo had undertaken unofficial diplomatic missions to North Korea in an effort to improve its relationship with the United States.The Bush Administration’s Secret Link to North Korea
Aram Roston, ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', February 7, 2012 In 2009 Joo was let go from the ''Times'' by its then owner,

Hyun Jin Moon Hyun Jin Preston Moon (born 25 May 1969) is a South Korean social entrepreneur, founder and chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, and later the Family Peace Association. His father, Sun Myung Moon, was the founder of the Unification Church, a ...

.Rev. Sun Myung Moon said to be considering buying back Washington Times
Ian Shapira, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', August 25, 2010 In 2011 he was again serving as president of the ''Times'' and visited

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, along with Unification Church president

Hyung Jin Moon Hyung Jin Moon (born September 26, 1979), also known as Sean Moon, along with his wife Yeon Ah Lee Moon founded the Pennsylvania-based World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church (also known as Rod of Iron Ministries). The Sanctuary Church is ...

and

Pyeonghwa Motors Pyeonghwa Motors (Hangul : 평화자동차; Hancha : 平和自動車 – a Korean language word for "peace"), also spelled Pyonghwa, is one of the two car manufacturers and dealers in the Automotive industry in North Korea, North Korean automoti ...

president Sang Kwon Park, to offer condolences on the death of North Korean leader

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong Il (born Yuri Kim; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his death in 2011, when he was ...

. Joo was born in North Korea and is now a citizen of the United States.Unification Church president on condolence visit to N. Korea
''

Yonhap News Yonhap News Agency (; ) is a major news agency in South Korea. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures, and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea. History Yonhap was esta ...

'', December 26, 2011

References

See also