You’ve probably heard the Korean War referred to as an unfinished conflict - but that’s not just a reference to the frozen war on the Peninsula. The sudden outbreak of war in 1950 and the rapid movement of the battlefront up and down the peninsula left countless people separated from their family members. Children separated from their parents - siblings losing one another in the chaos.
The scale of this tragedy was so immense that reunions efforts by South Koreans to reunite with relatives within South Korea would be ongoing well into the 1980s. Of course, reuniting family members separated by the demilitarized zone between the Koreas proved more challenging - arguably increasingly so in the past two decades. Will there ever be closure for these last victims of the Korean War?
Our guests today - Woodrow Wilson Center’s Soojin Park and Paul Lee from the U.S. Institute of Peace are intimately familiar with efforts by both governments and non-governmental organizations to reunite divided families. They are joined by Korea Economic Institute’s non-resident fellow and former special envoy for North Korea human rights issues.
You can find the issues brief on divided families that Paul Lee drafted for the National Committee on North Korea here:
https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/u.s.-north-korea-divided-families
Korean Aid and Cooperation with the African Development Bank
Korea's Economic Outlook: A View from the OECD
Seoul Mate: A Reflection on Five Years in Korea
Myanmar Between the Two Koreas
Combatting Yellow Dust and Air Pollution
Deciphering China’s Security Intentions: A Japanese Perspective
Reform or Status Quo? An Analysis of North Korea's Party Congress
A Russian Perspective on Northeast Asia
South Korea and Iran's Partnership Potential
South Korea's Role in the Chang Mai Initiative and Regional Economic Integration
[Rebroadcast] Steven Yeun: The Walking Dead
A Look at the North Korean Economy with Dr. Stephan Haggard
Overlap and Divergence in American and European Approaches to the Korean Peninsula
Could North Korean nuclear tests trigger an eruption of Mt. Baekdu?
Follow the Money: The Cat and Mouse Game to Cut off North Korea's Nuclear Program
New US, UN Sanctions Up Pressure on North Korea
Justice Michael Kirby and the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea
A Conversation with TV Host and Chef Marja Vongerichten
Korean American Day 2016: Chef Edward Lee
North Korea's Abduction Project
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free