ASIA/KOREA – The broken dream of reuniting families divided by the “frozen river”

ASIA/KOREA – The damaged dream of reuniting households divided by the “frozen river”

by Paolo Affatato

Pyongyang (Agenzia Fides) – The final assembly happened in 2018. On this expertise that politics defines as “household reunion” between folks divided by the border between North Korea and South Korea, there are the tears, the embraces, the sufferings and the thrill of brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, youngsters and oldsters that the “bamboo curtain” – the border that crosses the Korean peninsula on the thirty eighth parallel – has divided since 1953. Since 2018, 5 years of silence. And the latest proposal for a brand new assembly, launched in September 2022 by the Seoul authorities, fell on deaf ears. In the present day, many Koreans, each South and North, hope that on the seventieth anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean Battle on July 25, 1953, a reunion between divided households can as soon as once more be envisaged.

Household reunifications, hour-long conferences promoted by the governments of North and South Korea, are a extremely emotional humanitarian challenge. They concern people who find themselves now aged, throughout 80, who lengthy to see their family members, at the very least one final time, earlier than they die.
The painful household rifts date again to the occasions of 1945, when the Korean peninsula was divided. A number of years later, in 1950, the Korean Battle broke out and hundreds of thousands of Korean residents fled from the North to the South seeking freedom and dignity.
Maybe they by no means thought that they might by no means see and kiss their family members once more.
Confronted with the necessity expressed on each side of the border, the Korean Crimson Cross took the initiative, in 1971, to arrange a search marketing campaign for members of separated households. Since then, many individuals have expressed the want to know the potential existence of their dwelling kinfolk, of whom that they had no information, to be able to discuss to one another and discover one another.
In 1983, on the thirtieth anniversary of the tip of the Korean Battle, this system “Discovering Dispersed Households” was created and broadcast by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) between June and November 1983. This tv program aimed to reunite Korean households separated by the partition of the peninsula. First filmed at KBS headquarters in Seoul, it shortly unfold to the entire nation on account of its nice success. The KBS channel was inundated with numerous requests to seem on the present, which aired for 453 hours and 45 minutes over 138 days. 53,000 folks took half within the present and greater than 10,000 households discovered a relative on the opposite facet of the border. The present acquired worldwide acclaim and has been on UNESCO’s Reminiscence of the World register since 2015.
The influence it had on the Korean folks was profound. For the primary time mass media had been used to contribute to the post-war reunification course of, and the present proved essential for communication between North and South Korea: for the federal government in Seoul, the present was a possibility to re-establish contacts and reopen talks with the North for household reunification conferences, to be held within the “demilitarized zone”, the strip of land that separates the 2 nations.
The result’s a sequence of gatherings of divided households. The Crimson Cross succeeded in organizing, with the settlement of the 2 governments, an trade of residence visits between artists from Seoul and Pyongyang in September 1985. The difficulty remained on the political agenda, even when the governments’ method was totally different: the North Korean authorities didn’t separate it from political and diplomatic points, whereas within the South, efforts had been made to maintain these conferences outdoors of political points, presenting them solely as humanitarian and social initiatives.
A turning level got here in 2000 when, with the launch of the so-called “sunshine coverage” – the coverage of thawing and mutual rapprochement, inaugurated by the assembly between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean chief Kim Jong-il – the primary official household reunion happened, instantly after the inter-Korean summit in August of the identical 12 months. One other 20 conferences adopted nearly yearly. In 2009, the Seoul authorities handed a selected legislation to advertise the reunification of divided households. On the identical time, the Unification Ministry and the Korean Crimson Cross launched an “built-in data system for separated households”, an internet platform created with the purpose of serving to separated households to fulfill and trade data. The method appeared consolidated. Associations such because the Inter-Korea Separated Household Affiliation or the Korean Crimson Cross maintained open channels and in addition organized digital conferences, permitting members of the family to trade letters, make video calls and even, extra not often, to arrange household reunions in third nations, via Chinese language intermediaries.
The final materials assembly between kinfolk happened from August 20 to 26, 2018, simply after the inter-Korean summit in Panmunjon. The South Koreans who benefited from this assembly – had been 89 from the South, whereas 83 got here from the North – had been drawn by lot: the oldest was 101 years outdated.
Since then, with the tightening of bilateral relations, household reunions have additionally ceased.
After a number of years, Unification Minister Kwon Younger-se tried to revive the difficulty in September 2022, declaring that “the South and the North need to face the painful features of actuality. We should resolve this downside earlier than the time period ‘separated households’ disappears”, he mentioned, calling for “fast measures”. Two days earlier than Chuseok, the Thanksgiving vacation celebrated in each Koreas, Kwon mentioned South Korea hoped officers from the 2 Koreas “can meet as quickly as potential” for a frank dialogue on the difficulty. This query is a component of a bigger framework: since taking workplace in Might 2022, the South Korean authorities, led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, has provided an enormous help plan for the North in trade for denuclearization.
The Pyongyang authorities responded that additional conferences weren’t potential “till the US abandons its hostile insurance policies in direction of the North”. Border closures stay confirmed additionally because of the pandemic, which has been cited as an impediment to the resumption of household reunions, which stay a “damaged dream”.
Korean poet Kim Tong-hwan (1091-1958) spoke of the “dream” of Korean households in a poignant poem titled “When the Frozen River Thaws”. It refers back to the Han River which, within the final a part of its course earlier than flowing into the Yellow Sea, marks the border between South Korea and North Korea. The Han River is a logo of misplaced unity: it’s fashioned by the confluence of the Namhan River (coming from the south) and the Bukhan River, which originates on the slopes of Mount Geumgang, in North Korea. The 2 branches take part Gyeonggi-do Province, and from there the stream is known as the Han River.
“When the frozen river thaws, a ferry boat will come.
My lover will need to have bought aboard the boat.
Tho’ he’s not accessible, his letter will come.
In the present day I used to be ready on the riverside solely to fail.
When my lover comes, my sorrow will fade away.
Within the freezing winter, the frozen river too
Will thaw by itself unnecessary to contemplate my thoughts.
In the present day I used to be ready on the riverside solely to fail”.
[Kim Tong-hwan]
(Agenzia Fides, 22/7/2023)

Share: