"Jong-Moon Kwag, principal of Hangyoere Middle and High School,
has presented a new paradigm of education in Korea throughout his life-time endeavors to afford underprivileged youths education that promotes their creativity and upright character through night schools and alternative education programs."

He is also an educator who takes the initiative in helping young North Korean defectors adapt to life in the South and giving them new hope. In 1978, Principal Kwag, then aged 19 and still a university student, opened Gongshim Night School to help teenage factory workers enter a higher-level school. In 1983, he also tutored 180 young people at the Jeonju Juvenile Detention Center and helped all of them pass a qualification examination and be released on special parole, giving hope to the underprivileged in our society.

His staunch commitment, without remuneration, enabled in 1986 the restoration of Youngsan Saungji School, which had been slated for closure. In 1998, he also helped Youngsan Saungji High School become accredited and reopen as a specialized alternative high school. The school was rated as one of the world's best by the OECD in 2001 and was introduced to major countries such as USA, Japan and Germany.

He established Seongji Songhak Middle School in 2002 as the first alternative middle school in Korea and exerted himself to provide drop-outs with the hands-on, experience-based education programs that build upright character and a broad range of experimental education programs tailored to individual students' aptitudes, strengths and interests.

In 2006, Principal Kwag also founded Hangyoere Middle and High School where he lives with young North Korean defectors (age 14 to 22) and acts as their parent while helping them quickly adapt to Korean society. He teaches them how to go about their everyday lives in the South, including how to use public transportation and apply for certificates with government offices. Students take self-selecting classes of their choice regardless of their grade. They also learn to assume a positive attitude through keeping journals, meditation, and yoga. Hangyoere Middle and High School also offers students vocational education to help them get normal jobs to continue their study. The students as a whole have performed extremely well, as demonstrated in the increase in their adaptation rate from 43 percent to 98 percent.

He has set a shining example to the educational community, which had previously taken little interest in alternative education, much less recognizing it. As a strong advocate for young North Korean refugees, Principal Kwag is expected to continue to make unwavering efforts to empower and help them self-develop and realize their dreams for the future in a safer environment.