In 1941, Hugo Wheegook Kim was born to a family cultivating a small plot of land in the Jeonnam province of South Korea. He received a basic education during the Korean War, graduated from a teacher’s high school in Suncheon city in 1959, and taught at a primary school in his hometown until he was admitted to the prestigious Korea Military Academy in 1962. After graduation from the KMA in 1966, he was commissioned to the second lieutenant of the Korean Army to the infantry division.
After thirteen years of his services with tactical and strategic training, Hugo pursued an opportunity for overseas graduate education: three years for a Master’s program, and another three years for a Doctorate program. After receiving a MPBA from Southeastern University, Hugo earned his Masters of Arts and Ph.D. in economics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He returned to Seoul to teach at the National Defense University. Then he made a major decision to retire from the Korean Army in 1987 to further his education in the United States.
Teaching at Southeastern University during 1989-91, Hugo participated
in research activities as an Adjunct Fellow at CSIS during 1994-99. Meanwhile, he had taken active part in furthering Korean studies as a founding member of the International Council on Korean Studies (ICKS). He took a pivotal role organizing the ICKS annual conferences, and publishing its academic journal IJKS as Editor-in-Chief for five years.
Hugo has taught graduate courses at the Washington University of Virginia during 2008-2018. He has published books and articles in journals and newspapers. With the staunch support of his devoted wife, Hugo embarked on an ambitious book project – a series of seven books of the History of Politics and Economy. He labored for over sixteen years and independently first published the series through CreateSpace in 2020 listed in the publications page.