KRC along with other centers in Seattle, Washington, DC, Houston and other cities, were established in the early 1980s by political activists who escaped South Korea after Chun Doo-hwan's military leadership crushed the Gwangju People's Uprising in May 1980. From the onset, the center set as its goals the delivery of social services, community education, rights advocacy, and preservation and enrichment of traditional cultures and work on identity. During the 1980s, it focused its advocacy in solidarity work with the democratization movement of South Korea, exposing grave human rights violations committed by the Chun regime. Because of its open challenge to the then dictatorial state of South Korea, KRC was a target of covert repression and kidnap attempts by the KCIA and the Korean Consulate.