As President Barack Obama continues to mull a U.S. military strategy against ISIS, Korean-American ministers from across Southern California pledged their support Thursday to help Christians and other minorities who continue to be targeted by the terrorist group in Iraq. Several members of the Korean-American community gathered at the Abundant Mission Church in Westlake, near Koreatown, to hear a report about how hundreds of thousands of Assyrians, Yazidis and other minorities in Northern Iraq continue to be persecuted under Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. David William Lazar, chairman of the American Mesopotamian Organization, outlined the needs of the Assyrians and others displaced from their homes since the takeover in June of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, by ISIS. ISIS has targeted the Christian Assyrian population, whose faith has been present in the Nineveh plains for almost 2,000 years. Lazar said the Korean community can help by communicating with the United Nations and ask them to help the Assyrians and other minorities establish a safe haven in the Nineveh plains of Iraq. “This is a dire situation,” Lazar said. “This is an ethnic cleansing and a genocide in the making. We need the international community to help us.” Tina Park, who was the first Korean-American board trustee member for the Los Angeles Community College District, said she organized the awareness campaign with the Korean American Christian community because she found the Assyrian plight horrific. She said it reminded her of the “Comfort Women” issue, when 200,000 mostly Korean women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. A monument dedicated to those women now sits in Glendale as a testimony that their stories have been heard. “When I saw the horrific things that were happening to the Assyrians in Iraq, I felt I needed to reach out and connect them with the Korean churches,” Park said. “It’s not just a Christian issue. It’s a human catastrophe, and there is a need for humanitarian help.” Chorbishop George Bet-Rasho of St. Mary’s Assyrian Church of the East in Tarzana said he was grateful to the Korean community for reaching out. He described the plight of his people as those who are drowning, who reach out their hands for help in a world that has seemed indifferent. "At this moment, in the state we're in, we're reaching out to anyone who will take our hand," Bet-Rasho said. Park said donations can be sent to the Assyrian AID Society of America, which helps to provide food, clothing and shelter. For more information, go to AssyrianAID.org.