Links to the Speeches of Chahee Stanfield at the Congressional Hearing in English and in Korean: Won Hee Lee wrote, “This family picture shows my father, my mother, and me when I was five years old. Now I am 86 years old. In 1988, I went to Manchuria to look for my father and my brother.” Won Hee Lee passed away in May 2019. The family Story link: See Oong Hee's letter and pictures.

Documentary Film produced by Jason Ahn and Eugene Chung. See Documentary Film

The 60-Year-Old Youth: Movie made about father in North Korea who was a marathon runner. Dr. Jason Ahn obtained The 60-Year-Old Youth from North Korea for his documentary film Divided Families.com

Win/TV Documentary film: Wang Ki Kim, CEO. and the production team 9/2011. "The War Never Ended", "Father’s Marathon, Daughter’s Marathon", "We Must See Each Other Again".
See The War Never Ended
See Father’s Marathon, Daughter’s Marathon
See We Must See Each Other Again

2020 Timeline by Korean American Friends Council (Dan Jasper) See 2020 Timeline

• Arirang TV Prime:See In honor of the start of the Korean War
• Won Hee Lee’s video: Arirang TV production. Interviewed by Dr. Jason Ahn. See Won Hee Lee’s video
• Senator Mark Kirk’s Hearing: See Senator Mark Kirk’s Hearing
• Congressional Hearing. June 12, 2019 KBS video

“I am 88 years old, and my wife is 82 years old. I have one sister and one brother, and my wife has two sisters in North Korea. We own a house in Chicago, and it is getting harder for us to maintain the house. But we refuse to give up the hope that our brother and sisters in North Korea will come to the United States and live together with us in our house someday".
Photo with Granddaughter Tresa Yi, DFUSA. Mr. Seo passed away in 2015, and Mrs. Seo passed away in 2020.

To my dear elder brother who is so far away,

How are you? You left home 45 years ago. It must have been a terribly hard life for you away from home for such a long time. We are so excited to hear from you. Please introduce us to your wife and family. We were thrilled to receive your letter on May 14. What took you so long to let us know you are still alive?
Many people who left home in 1950 have come home to see their family members, but why have you waited so long to let us know about you? We thought you had passed away.
Do you know how hard it was for our parents to wait for you to return? They asked me to find you by all means in my lifetime even though they might not see you again. Mother even asked to engrave your name on her tombstone, and I did as mother’s wishes after she had passed away because I didn’t know whether you were still alive or not. Our parents never forgot about you whenever or wherever they were, they waited for you with their whole hearts.
When we learned in February that you were in America, I went to mother’s tomb and told her the news that you were still alive, and on Hahnsik (Korean holiday which is 105th day after the winter solstice on which sacrificial food is offered at the ancestral tombs), our elder sister went to father’s tomb and told him the news about you, which he had been waiting for so long. Now they have the news which they were so anxiously waiting for so long, and I hope they sleep in peace.
I graduated from metallurgical technology college and work for a company, and my wife (whose name is Park Yong Hwa.) also works for the same company. We have 5 children, four daughters and one son, and Joo-Ok and Kyong-Ok are married, and Yong-Ok . Hae-sook and Kyong Il are with us.
Mrs. Seo Hyun Ok: She passed away in August 2019.

“I am sorry. So sorry for leaving (home) alone and living in (South Korea). I wish I could find out whether they are still alive. The 98-year-old Korean-American met with a reporter at his home in Englewood, New Jersey, and repeatedly said, “I am so sorry to my children whom I left in North Korea. “I was born in 1912, which is the same year in which Prime Minister Kim Il Sung was born. Mr. Lee’s home town is Pyong Ahn Book Do, Yong Chun-gun, Nae Joong Myun Songsahn Dong (평안북도 용천군 내중면 송산동). He was a railroad worker for the government when Korea was under Japanese rule.
(After Korea became independent), he owned a noodle restaurant named Ahp Kang Myun Chum (압강면점), and he sold a thousand noodle dishes a day in Sin-ue-joo (신의주). Then, the Korean War broke out.In October, 1950, in order to get away from the bombing, he followed the U.S. Army and came to the South alone. He left his 34-year-old wife, three sons and three daughters: Taehyun, Yongja, Tae Young, Taesook, Tae Yun, and Taeok. Then, the oldest son was a junior at high school and the youngest wasn’t even a year old. If she is still alive, she will be almost 70 years old.
When he left home, he thought he would be back home in a month, but he couldn’t go home for 58 years. In South Korea, he graduated from the police academy and worked as the head of the investigation department in Chun Nam Province, and after that, he was the chief of staff for the governor of the province, and later on, he was in charge of the Yong San Po Agricultural Union. But during all these years, he never forgot about his home even for a minute, and when he retired in 1970, he moved to Paju , Kyung gido, and he joined the refugee farmers from North Korea and farmed.
In 1992, he moved to New Jersey to live with his son (Tae Hun) and his son’s wife. But his homesickness has gotten worse. He has been watching Korean news and listening to the Korean radio, and he has been making notes on news about North Korea. He has tried numerous times to see his children. In 2003, he joined a divided family group and went to Pyongyang to look for his family (without success). After he returned home, the North Korean government informed him that they “had found the family.” Mr. Lee bought a ticket to leave for Pyongyang, but on the date when he was supposed to leave (for Pyongyang), they found out that it was for someone else who had the same name as his.
His son Taehun said,“My father was a capitalist when he was in North Korea, and he was a policeman in South Korea, and these two things might have put his North Korean family into a difficult situation.”
He said that several years ago, his father paid for an advertisement on Yong gil radio (in Manchuria, the broadcast intended for North Korean defectors) trying to locate anyone who might know about his family in North Korea. Through the advertisement, a defector from Sin-ui-joo (in North Korea) contacted his father and said that he had heard that his oldest son had passed away, but the second son was living somewhere in Hamkyong-do.
Until a year ago, Mr. Lee voluntarily cleaned his neighborhood streets, but since injuring his leg, he has been considerably deteriorating. But he is still healthy enough that he took a trip to Korea a few months ago. His only problem is hearing. In order to communicate with him, his family members have to write.
During the interview with the reporter, he said, “The only reason I am still alive is to go back home. If walking is allowed to go back home, I will walk all the way home. I will happily die the next day if I can go home and am allowed to be buried with my ancestors at home. I constantly worry whether they have enough to eat. I wish I could go home and farm to provide enough food for them.”
Mr. Lee’s desperate story was told to Mark Choi, (who was in the 11th year at Horace Mann School, New Jersey), a volunteer worker at Eugene Bell Foundation’s Saemsori Project. Mark’s father, Mr. Yun-suk Choi, reported the story in the Korean community.
On the 2nd, the Korean community in New York and New Jersey is meeting at Mr. Choi’s Manhattan restaurant to support Congressman Mike Honda, who was a leading politician in the passage of the resolution on the Korean Comfort Women, and Mr. Choi said, “We informed the congressman about Mr. Lee and asked for help. “ “If the U. S Congress works on this issue, there is hope for Mr. Lee to see his children in his lifetime.”

"미안한 마음 뿐이지. 혼자 (남으로) 내려와 사는 것이.. 생사 확인만이라도 했으면 좋겠는데..."
올해 한국나이로 98세인 재미교포 리근 씨는 1일 뉴저지주 잉글우드의 자택에서기자와 만나 "북에 두고 온 아이들에게 미안하다"는 얘기를 여러 차례 반복했다.
"1912년 김일성 주석과 같은 해에 태어났다"는 리 씨는 평안북도 용천군 내중면송산동 출신으로 일제 때 철도 공무원을 하다가 6.25 전쟁이 터질 때까지 평안북도 신의주에서 `압강면점'(鴨江麵店)을 운영하면서 하루에 냉면을 1천그릇씩 팔았다고 한다.
1950년 10월 그는 폭격을 피해 미군을 따라 혈혈단신 월남했다. 당시 34세이던 처 오금주 씨와 태현.영자.태영.태숙.태윤.태옥 등 3남3녀를 고향에 남겨 놓았다. 큰 아들은 13세로 중학교 1학년이었고 , 지금 살아있다면 환갑이 다 됐을 막내 태옥은 생후 1년도 채 안된 젖먹이었다. 한 달 쯤 있다가 다시 돌아갈 것이라고 생각하고 혼자 떠나온 고향에는 이후 58년동안 갈수 없었다. 월남해서 경찰 전문학교를 단기 수료한 그는 전남 도경 수사과장, 전남지사 비서실장과 영산포 수리조합장을 역임했다.
그러나 고향 생각을 한시도 잊어본 적이 없는 그는 1970년대초 퇴직후 경기도 파주로 옮겨가 실향민들과 민통선 내에서 농사를 지으면서 살았다. 1992년 아들(태헌) 내외가 정착해 있는 뉴저지로 옮겨왔다. 미국에 와서 고향이 더욱 그리워진 그는 하루도 빠짐없이 한국 신문과 방송 뉴스를 보면서 북한 관련 소식을 메모해 왔다.
가족 상봉도 여러 차례 시도했다. 2003년에는 재미 실향민 방북단의 일원으로 평양을 방문해 가족들의 소식을 수소문했다. 당시 북쪽에서 "가족들을 찾았다"고 연락이 와 다시 평양을 가려고 비행기표까지 끊어 놨지만, 출발 당일 "동명이인이었다"는 소식에 좌절한 적도 있었다.
태헌 씨는 "아버님이 북한에서 자본가 계급이었고, 월남까지 한 데다 남한에서 경찰공무원을 지내 북쪽 가족들이 어려운 상황에 처했을 것으로 추측된다"고 말했다.
그는 "몇 년 전 탈북자 중에 혹시 아는 사람이 있나 싶어 연길 방송에 광고를 낸 적이 있는데, 신의주 출신의 한 탈북자로부터 큰 형은 사망했고 둘째 형은 함경도 어딘가에 있다는 얘기를 들은 적이 있다"며 안타까움을 털어 놓았다.
1년 전만 해도 잉글우드 자택 주변의 동네길 청소를 도맡아 했던 `망백의 노인'은 다리를 다친 이후 많이 쇠약해졌다. 그럼에도 몇 달 전 한국 여행을 다녀올 정도로 여전히 건장하다. 다만 가는귀가 먹어 가족들과의 대화는 글로 적어 물어보면 노인이 읽은 뒤 대답하는 식이다.
리 씨는 이날 인터뷰에서 "지금까지 살고 있는 목적은 고향에 가겠다는 생각 때문이다. 걸어서라도 갈 수 있으면 가고 싶고, 통일이 돼 그 다음날 고향 선산에 묻히면 그만"이라며 "먹고 살기도 어렵다는데 얼마나 고생들 하는지, 가서 농사를 지으면서 배불리 먹이고 싶은 생각 뿐"이라고 말했다.
리 씨의 절박한 소식은 유진벨 재단이 운영하는 재미 교포 이산가족 돕기 프로그램인 `샘소리'에서 자원봉사를 하고 있는 마크 최(뉴저지 호레이스맨 고교 11학년) 군이 알게됐고, 최 군의 아버지 최윤석씨를 통해 교포사회에 알려졌다.
일본군 위안부 결의안의 주역인 마이크 혼다 하원의원을 위한 뉴욕.뉴저지 한인후원 모임을 오는 2일 자신의 맨해튼 식당에서 열 예정인 최 씨는 "혼다 의원에게 리 씨의 사연을 얘기하고 도움을 요청해 놨다"면서 "미 의회 차원에서 움직인다면 리 씨 생전에 상봉이 가능할 수도 있다"고 말했다.

“I am 90 years old. I left a 2-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 7-year-old in my mother’s care in North Korea. While I was visiting my relatives in Seoul, the Korean War broke out, and I couldn’t go back home. Since then, every night I go home in my dreams looking for my children. I had a stroke several years ago, and I have had a few operations, but I am hanging in here because I must know what happened to my children.”
Un Chin Lee passed away in July 2017.

Her story link to CNN: Korean War's lasting toll: Families divided forever
By Kyung Lah and Jason Kravarik, CNN
Updated 7:18 AM ET, Thu June 25, 2015

Korean War is 'the war with no end' 03:58
(CNN)Every night she returns to the home, calling her children's names. The snowstorm is blinding. She can't get inside the house, where her three children -- a 2-year-old son, 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son -- live. Un Chin Lee screams, "Don't cry! Mommy's here!" Then Lee wakes up. She tries to shake the dream she's had nearly every night for 65 years. But the nightmare of her reality continues. Her children are trapped in North Korea. She has not seen, touched or heard from them since 1950, when the Korean War began. Lee doesn't even have a picture. She can only hope they are still alive.
She relies on a mental image of the last time she saw her children at her mother's home. They were playing, far enough away that she could slip out the door without them noticing. It would be easier on them, she convinced herself.
Lee could smell war coming on the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean government ordered all young men to report for military duty. Lee and her husband believed it would be his death sentence. They hatched a plan to skirt the conscription -- flee far into South Korea together and stay with relatives. Lee would return to her mother's house and reunite with her children the following week.
North Korea invaded South Korea just days after Lee and her husband slipped into the South. For the next three years, a bloody war waged across a land mass barely the size of California. The war would eventually kill more than 2 million Koreans and 36,574 U.S. military servicemen.
"I left them without saying goodbye," Lee says from her home in a low-income senior center in Chicago. She smooths her short gray hair, arthritic fingers pressing wiry, permed pieces in place. Her spine is stooped at age 93 and wrinkles weave deeply into a face that has seen too much.
"How much did they cry for their mother?" she asks, knowing her imagination is all that can answer. "They must have cried so much; their hearts hurt so much."
"I'm living," she continues, beckoning to the memory, "holding on with the hope I will one day see you." The war with no end
The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953, ceasing the battles between North Korea, China and United Nations forces. The agreement redrew the 38th parallel, which had divided North and South at the end of WWII, into a buffer zone called the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ.
Today, the 160-mile border is lined with barbed wire, weaponry and stone-faced military men -- in stark contrast to its name. The Korean War officially never ended. The DPRK is the world's most isolated nation. Its borders are closed; North Korean citizens cannot leave. On either side of the border are an unknown number of Korean families that have been separated since 1953. Figures in North Korea are not obtainable, and data in South Korea, advocates believe, has been tainted through postwar nationalistic politics and time. But advocates in the United States frequently cite this estimate: approximately 100,000 Korean-Americans are separated from relatives trapped in the North. "Every day counts. Time is running out," says Chahee Lee Stanfield, executive director of the National Coalition for the Divided Families. "In 10 years, they'll all be gone."
Stanfield herself was separated from her father when she was sent out of North Korea during the Korean War. He died in North Korea as an older man, unable to say goodbye to his wife or daughter. Stanfield, who emigrated to the United States, has heard similar stories from many others. Yet these personal tales are often lost among reports of North Korea's aggressive rhetoric and nuclear ambitions. "This is not a political matter," says Stanfield. "This is a humanitarian issue. We would like to see the U.S. government take an initiative in opening up a dialogue with North Korea. And North Korea might respond."
Stanfield says she has no choice but to remain hopeful, even as the dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea remains virtually nonexistent under the DPRK's young leader, Kim Jong Un.
Chahee Lee Stanfield, National Coalition for the Divided Families

Scars of the Heart: Wan Clan Noh
“I am 93 years old, and I left my wife, a 10-month-old son and a 5-year-old son in North Korea. I went to DC in 2007 to let the world know about our suffering, and time is running out for us in the United States and for our family members in North Korea. “ Rev. Noh passed away in 2017
Throughout history, Korea has been attacked and occupied by numerous nations.
The land was under Mongolian occupation from the early 13th to the mid-14th century. In the 19th century, Korea was caught in the middle of rivalries among China, France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States. Japan annexed the peninsula in 1910 and controlled it until the end of World War II, when it was divided at the 38th Parallel. Soviet forces occupied the north side, and U.S. forces the south, each backing governments that reflected their conflicting ideologies.
On June 25, 1950, two years after the Soviet and U.S. forces withdrew, 70,000 North Korean troops crossed the 38th Parallel to try to force a reunification under their government.
That marked the start of the Korean War. Fighting intensified when the United Nations — led by the U.S. — on the south side, and then the People’s Republic of China on the north side, entered the war.
A cease-fire was reached July 27, 1953.Five decades later; there have been signs of conciliation. Roh Moo-hyun, president of the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, and Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea, held a summit this fall, the second in recent years by the divided states.
They signed a declaration calling for the establishment of a permanent peace on the peninsula, the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue and improved economic ties.
But for many North Korean expatriates living in Maryland and elsewhere in the U.S., the war never ended. The shooting was replaced by heavily armed borders and more than a half-century of longing for families left behind.It is a quiet battlefield with subtle casualties and deep scars of the heart. Reverand Noh passed away in 2017.
Reverend Wan Clan No remembers the date he last saw his wife and two children: Dec. 11, 1950.
Six days after leaving home because he feared life as a Christian in North Korea, American fighters started bombing. He, along with his wife and children, took refuge under a bridge as they sought to escape to South Korea, armed merely with rice his mother gave them, two pieces of clothing and a Bible. His wife told him that she was too scared to go on.
His 5-year-old son was holding on to his mother’s skirt and wondering why his father was crying. She told him to come home soon, where she would be waiting. That was the last time he saw his wife or his then-5- year-old and 8-month-old sons.
He says he prays every hour and cries every day, but says he has never given up hope of seeing the family he left behind in North Korea.

See Message to President Trump

This video was made in February 2019 and was delivered to the State Department.

Mr. Lee, Hyun Joon: was born in 1927 in North Korea and passed away in July 2019 in Virginia.
He left his parents, siblings, wife, and a son in North Korea.

Mrs. Kim, Soon Bok testified at the Hearing of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus on June 12, Congressional Hearing. Mrs.Soon Bok Kim with Chairwoman Judy Chu and Congressman Mark Takano.
Mrs. Soon Bok Kim was born on July 27, 1934 in Pyong-Ahn Nam-do in North Korea, and she was the eldest child of 7. She and her husband came from South Korea to the United States in May 1975, and they became US citizens several years later. They have one son. Mrs. Kim and her husband live in Vienna, Virginia.

Mrs. Soon Bok Kim’s story: When the Korean War broke out in 1951, my father, one of my brothers, and I came to South Korea leaving my grandmother, mother, and two younger sisters and three younger brothers in North Korea. My father, Sung Cho Kim, and my brother, Sun Sik Kim, passed away in South Korea.
Until 1988, my siblings in North Korea and we exchanged letters, and my mother was still alive then. But the letters stopped coming. I would like to know whether my younger sisters: Soon Hee and Soon Chun, and my younger brothers: Kwang Soo, Won Sik, and Jung Sik, are still alive.
I am 85 years old, and I don’t have much time left to find out about my family members in North Korea, and to fulfill my lifelong dream to go to see my family members in North Korea.

Farewell to the North Korean War POWs and Goodbye to My Family in North Korea by Jang Song
I am almost 90 years old, but my heart still leaps every year when July 27 is approaching. I spent 6 years of my prime youth on battlefields: 3 years in the Korean War, two years in the Vietnam War, and one year on the Cambodian battlefields. We all prayed to survive the war, and this was the same for all of us, friendly forces or enemies. Each battle was different. Sometimes, we were victorious and sometimes we were defeated but we all prayed not to become prisoners during the Vietnam War because we heard that it was almost impossible to come out of it alive.
As the Armistice Agreement was set for July 27, 1953, the war became bloodier than ever fighting for every inch of ground on each side while the hungry refugees who had left their homes in North Korea were watching the end of a war without winners or losers. In the end, the Armistice Agreement was drawn on July 27.
The Armistice Agreement was reached, and the POWs were to be delivered to North Korea in August, 1953. It took only 30 minutes to deliver them at a small rusty railroad crossing in the overgrown weeds of a desolate open field on the western front.
5 or 6 American/UN soldiers, a small US military band, and a Korean army band which I belonged to were lined up for the farewell ceremony, and we were playing marching songs and Korean folk songs such as Arirang while waiting for the train heading for North Korea. When the train carrying the North Korean POWs appeared in sight, my heart started beating fast. The train stopped for 30 minutes then started moving slowly north, blowing its whistle, tearing my heart and carrying the tragedy of Korea while the POWs were celebrating by singing North Korean songs, shouting for victory, breaking the train windows, tearing up their uniforms and throwing the remnants out through the train windows, and embracing each other’s bare bodies. And the sound of their victory and the music of our bands spread, echoing through the empty desolate fields far far away.
At that moment, I felt like my heart was being torn apart, and tears were pouring down my face. I envied them, the dead and the living going home. The dead would be treated as heroes and the pride of their families, and the living would share their abundant stories with their families. They were going home, where my mother and brothers and sisters were waiting for me, and in my mind, I was going home with them. I was crying and shouting silently, “Mother, I wish I could come home, but I can’t. Please live a healthy and long long life.”
Until the train disappeared from our sight, we played Arirang, which was the saddest song I have ever played in my life. It was 67 years ago, but July 27 is engraved on my heart as an unforgettable day, and the pain and sorrow from the separation from my family have never gone away. My heart is still broken!

A broken Heart stricken by Homesick for 57 years. This is an article written by Jin Ho Moon in the Korea Daily dated September 24, 2007. Mrs. Byung Hun Hahn passed away in summer of 2011.
추석 때마다 드는 고향과 가족에 대한 그리움이란 것은 누구도 알 수 없을거야.” 대부분의 사람들에게 추석은 가족, 친지들과 함께 풍성함을 누리는 즐거운 명절이다. 하지만, 평양 출신 한병헌 할머니 (92살. 사진)의 추석은 57년 째 ‘그리움’으로 남아 있다.
한 할머니가 고향과 가족을 떠나 온 것은 민족의 비극인 6.25전쟁 때, 시댁 식구들과 함께 피난길에 오르면서 친정과 떨어진 것이 평생의 이별이 되 버렸다. “피난길에 오르면서 마지막이 됐지. 나만 넘어 온거야, 나만. 부모님들도, 두명의 언니도, 두명의 오빠도 더 이상 살아 있을는지…”
그런 할머니의 올해 추석 소망은 57년을 한결같이 ‘만남’이다. “죽기 전에 다시 한 번 고향에서 가족의 얼굴을 보고 싶네.” “ 다 잘 지내고 있는지, 살아는 있는지 이제 점차 늙어가는 내가 과연 다시 그들을 만날 수 있을지”라며 탄식하는 할머니의 어깨는 떠나온 가족 생각으로 다시금 가라 앉았다. 할머니는 “그립다 못해 지쳤버렸어. 그리움이란 말도 더 이상 하기 힘드네”라며 아쉬워했다.
당시를 돌아보며 “조카가 6살이 8살인가 그랬지. 아마 지금은 60이 넘었을텐데 살아 있을까 모르겠네. 부모님은 이미 돌아 가셨을테지”라며 가족들을 그리는 할머니는 그들의 이름은 절대 꺼내질 않았다. 혹여 그들이 해를 입을까 막연한 두려움 때문에 할머니는 사무치는 그리움 속에서도 이산가족 찾기 등의 행사 때 가족을 찾지 않았다. 지난 1977년 할머니는 당시 미국으로 출가한 딸의 부탁으로 ‘1년만’이라는 조건을 달며 시카고로 왔다.
현재 기력이 쇠해 그로스포인트 요양원에서 머물고 있다.한 할머니는 이름조차 부를 수 없는 현실 속에서도 생애 마지막 꿈을 꾸고 있다. “다시 추석 때 고향, 내가 떠나온 그 집에서 온가족이 모여 않아 도란도란 지나온 애기를 나누 날이 왔으면 좋겠어.”
문진호기자. 중앙일보
A Broken Heart Stricken by Homesickness for 57 Years. This is an article written by Jin Ho Moon in the Korea Daily dated September 24, 2007, and Mrs. Byung Hun Hahn, who passed away in the summer of 2011.
On Chusuk (Korean traditional holiday which is August 15 by Lunar calendar), 92 year-old Byung Hun Hahn tells a story about her home she left 57 years ago and her family she has never seen since. “Nobody knows what Chusuk means to people who can’t go home and see their family members,” she says. Chusuk is a happy holiday for family members and relatives to get together and enjoy their blessings. But to Mrs. Hahn, who left her hometown Pyongyang 57 years ago, the holiday is another day of heartache and sadness from missing her family.
Mrs. Hahn left her home during the Korean War. She and her husband with his family joined a stream of refugees to the south, and that path set her separation from her own family forever. “I left all my family members behind: my parents, two elder sisters, and two elder brothers.” My this-year’s Chusuk wish is no different from the wishes of the last 57 years. I wish to see my family again before I die.” “As I get older, I constantly wonder whether they are still alive, and if I will ever see them again.” Mrs. Hahn sobs. “I miss my family. I am heartbroken, and I am tired of this everlasting sadness and pain in my heart. When I left home, my nephew was 6 or 8 years old. If he is still alive, he will be over 60 years old. My parents have probably passed away by now.”
During this interview, Mrs. Han never mentioned the names of her family members in North Korea, because she was worried it might harm them. Despite her heartbreak and longing to see her family again, this worry has kept her from participating in any events searching for family members in North Korea. She came to the United States in 1977 at her married daughter’s request. She was going to stay for a year in the States, but she has stayed on. Currently, she is physically so weak that she is at a nursing home.

Every June 5th, Mr. Jong Hyun Do cannot fall asleep at night. Since on this day in 1970, he doesn’t know whether his older brother, Sergeant Jong-Mu Do (at that time 24 years of age; photo), is still alive or dead. 50 years have passed since his family heard about him.
Mr. Do has the scraps of the DongA IIbo (Korea Daily Newspaper) which reported the facts at that time. The DongA Ilbo reported, “On June 5, 1970, the Korean Ministry of National Defense announced that at 1:40 PM on the same day, our Navy broadcasting ship, dispatched to protect our fishing fleet, was attacked by surprise and seized by North Korea.” (June 6, 1970 front page)
The 20 crewmen including Sergeant Do battled fiercely but were outnumbered by North Korea. Our Naval vessel suffered heavy damage and sent its last message that it was battling against a North Korean speedboat. 15 minutes after the message was received, a South Korean F-5A fighter plane responded, but the naval vessel had been boarded and removed to the north of the NLL. Though it was unable to confirm Sergeant Do’s life or death, the Ministry of National Defense acknowledged that he was a military captive in 1976. After that, military law was amended in 1994 to state that military captives who have been held more than 10 years should be treated as combat fatalities. As a result, Sergeant Do is now classified as killed in action.
Su-Eun Yi, Sergeant Do’s mother, did not know if her son was alive or dead until her death at the age of 99 on October 2, 2013. Mr. Jong Hyun Do would like to know whether his brother Jong Mu Do is still alive.

“South Korea’s Forgotten Prisoners” This story was reported by correspondent Chico Harlan of the Washington Post and was featured in the July 31, 2013 edition of the Chicago Tribune.
Seoul, South Korea – Sixty years ago this summer, a 21-year-old South Korean soldier named Lee Jae-won wrote a letter to his mother. He was somewhere in the middle of the peninsula, he wrote, and bullets were coming down like “rain-drops.” He said he was scared. The next letter to arrive came days later from the South Korean military. It described a firefight in Paju, near the modern-day border between North and South, and said Lee had been killed there in battle. His body had not been recovere4d. “We never doubted his death,” said Lee’s younger brother, Lee Jae-seong. “It was the chaos of war, and you couldn’t expect to recover a body”
But Lee was not dead. Rather, he had been captured by Chinese communists and handed to the North Koreans, who detained him as a lifetime prisoner, part of a secretive program that continues 60 years after the end of the Korean War, according to south Korean officials and escapees from the North.
Tens of thousands of South Korean POWs were held captive in the North under the program, penned in remote areas and kept incommunicado in one of the most scarring legacies of the three-year war. South Korean officials say that about 500 of those POWs now in their 80s and 90s might still be alive, still waiting to return home,. In part because they’re so old, South Korea says it’ a government priority, though a difficult one, to get them out.
Almost nothing was known about the lives of these prisoners until 20 years ago when a few elderly soldiers escaped, sneaking from the northern tip of North Korea into China and into a virtuous society. In Lee Jae-Won’s case, it was liver cancer. It was 1994, and he was 63. After being captured by the Chinese and handed to North, He had worked for four decades in a mine at the northernmost point of the peninsula, near the Russian border. He’d married a woman with one eye – a fellow member of the hostile class – and had four children, all of whom were ridiculed by teachers and class mates for their family background.
But only a Lee’ health deteriorated in his final months did he tell his children, for the first time, the details of his earlier life. He gave one son, Le Ju-won, the names of family members in the South, as well as the address of the home in which he was raised. “So after I buried him, I decided to go there,” Lee Ju-won said. It took him 15 years to defect. Two days after Lee Ju-won was given his South Korean citizenship, he traveled to his family’ hometown, Boeun. His relatives still owned the original property, through the home had been demolished and rebuilt.
During that visit, Lee Ju-won learned that his family had celebrated his father’s birthday every year and always set aside a rice ball for him at the New Year’s feast. He also found his father’s letter from Paju, written weeks before the armistice. Hi also learned that his father was rebellious and talkative before the war. This was an unknown characteristic of his father’s in North Korea, and he was a lot like his father when he was young.
Hi father was well--respected in North Korea because he worked hard, and he made no mistakes in his work. But he lived a false life. He knew that if one wrong word slipped from his tongue, he would be putting his family in harm’s way. He never said a word about South Korea.

이 사진에 나오는 박향숙씨는 2006년에 국군포로였던 남편의 유골을 안고 탈북 했다. 이 사진은 박향숙씨가 2008년에 탈북한 국군포로를 환영하고 있는 모습니다. 다음 기사는 이북에서 태어난 국군포로의 아들이 탈북하여 아버지 고향을 방문한 이야기이다.
(1950년) 여름, 21살 난 이재원 (Lee Jae Won) 국군은 어머니에게 이렇게 (마지막) 편지를 보냈다. 자기는 한반도 중부의 어디엔가 있는데 “지금 총알이 비 오듯 쏟아지고 있어요.” 그리고 그는 겁에 질려있다고 말했다.
며칠 후에 남한국방부에서 편지가 왔다. 그 편지는 파주전투를 설명했고 이재원씨가 파주전투에서 전사했다고 했다. 그리고 시체는 찾지 못했다고 했다. “우리는 이재원 형의 전사를 의심하지 않고 받아 드렸습니다.” 이재원씨 동생 이재성씨는 “전쟁의 혼란 속에서 시체를 찾는 것은 기대할 수 없는 일이였습니다.”라고 말 했다. 그렇지만 이재원씨는 전사하지 않았다. 이재원씨는 중공군에 포로가 되어 북한에 넘겨졌고 종신 포로가 되었다. 다른 탈북자들에 말에 의하면 정전 60년 이후에도 아직 까지도 이 종신 포로는 비밀리에 계속되고 있다.
그 후 이재원씨는 1994년 63세에 간암진단을 받았다. 이재원씨는 중공군에 포로 되어 북한에 넘겨진 후 40여년 동안 소련과 가까운 국경지대의 탄광에서 일을 했다. 그는 눈이 하나인 북한 여자와 결혼해서 4남매를 두었다. 그런데 이 아이들은 하나같이 선생님들과 다른 아이들로부터 조롱과 멸시를 받았다. 그렇지만 이재원씨는 침묵을 지켰다. 그는 생의 마지막 단계에서 건강상태가 아주 악화되고 나서야 처음으로 자기 아이들에게 그가 국군포로라는 것은 밝혔다. 그리고 그의 아들 이주원씨에게 남한 가족들의 이름과 자기가 자란 고향의 이름을 주어다. 이주원씨는 “아버지를 묻고 나서 나는 아버지의 나라에 가기로 결정했습니다.”라고 말했다.
그 후 남한으로 탈북하기까지 15년이 걸렸다. 남한에서 시민권을 받고 이틀 후에 그는 아버지의 고향 보은 (Boeun) 으로 갔다. 그의 친척들은 여전히 옛날 땅을 소유하고 있었지만 옛 집은 흘어서 새로 지어졌다. 친척들을 방문하는 동안, 이주원씨는 아버지의 가족들이 해마다 아버지의 생일을 치루고 설 잔치에는 언제나 아버지 밥 한 그릇을 상에 떠 놓는 것도 알았다. 그리고 아버지가 휴전 몇 주 전에 파주전투에서 쓴 편지도 보았다. 이주원씨는 아버지가 (6.25)전쟁 전에는 반항 적 이였고 이야기를 잘 했던 것도 알았다. 그것은 북한에서 볼 수 없었던 아버지의 새로운 성격으로 이재원씨는 아들인 자기에게 그런 성격을 물려 준 것도 알았다.
“알고 보니 나의 아버지는 나와 성격이 닮은 점이 많았어요. 그렇지만 아버지는 그런 내색을 전연 비치지 않았어요.” “북한에서 아버님은 열심히 일 했고 잘못하는 일이 없어 존경 받는 사람 이였어요. 그렇지만 아버지의 삶은 위장된 삶이였어요. 아버지는 만약 말 한 마디 잘못하면 전 가족이 피해를 입는 다는 것을 잘 알고 계셨어요. 그래서 남한에 관해서는 절대로 말씀하신 적이 없었어요.”