[USFK Forums] Korean Americans seek reunion with families in North Korea [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Thursday, February 9, 2006

Korean Americans seek reunion with families in North Korea

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- With the support of Congress and humanitarian groups, Korean Americans announced Wednesday a broad coalition to promote family reunions with their separated kin in North Korea.

Calling the project "saemsori," or "voice of spring water" in Korean, the coalition said it will start with three projects -- establishing a nationwide survey to determine how many of separated Korean families are in the U.S., creating a central database, and archiving letters, photos and oral histories.
There are some 2 million Korean Americans in the U.S., but the number who have kin in North Korea has not been officially tallied.

"Anywhere from lower end of tens of thousands to upper end of half a million," estimated Alice Suh, Washington office director of the Eugene Bell Foundation, one of the organizations participating in the project.

The Korean Peninsula, the last vestige of the Cold War, has been divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Families were separated between the two Koreas after the war ended, with many of them now aged or dying.

A limited number of people in Korea have been able to reunite under inter-Korean Red Cross arrangements, but Koreans living abroad have not been included.

"When it came to politics, all too often Korean Americans have been America's silent majority," said Stephen Linton, chairman of Eugene Bell. "No longer."

"The opportunity to expand humanitarian dialogue with North Korea, I think, is one that we should embrace," Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) said at a joint news conference with the Korean Americans at the National Press Center.

"Time has now come for a humanitarian practical agenda of reuniting these families."

"This effort is utterly bipartisan... bicameral," he said, emphasizing congressional support for reunion efforts.

ldm@yna.co.kr


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