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.
[2] NAKASEC coordinated a national two-week fast for the passage of the DREAM Act in 2004 with the participation of 700 individuals, and held a summer community fundraising campaign, gaining the monetary contribution of 14,000 individuals, to post a full-page ad in The New York Times and The Washington Post urging the American public to support comprehensive immigration reform based on the principles of legalization of undocumented immigrants, an end to measures that prevented many families to be together, and the defense of workers' rights and civil rights & liberties.
NAKASEC joined other labor, faith, and rights organizations in Southern California to form the We Are America Coalition, which mobilized hundreds of thousands of immigrants and allies in the May Day March.