Author: Paul K. Lee

Last Updated April 2023

Introduction

The 1945 partition of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th Parallel and the outbreak of the Korean War five years later led to the displacement and separation of countless families on both sides of the border.1 The continued division of these families is an enduring and painful legacy of the human costs of these events and their aftermath. Seven decades after the start of the war, these families remain the victims of geopolitical confrontation and entrenched borders. Despite being in the twilight of their lives, most of these families remain unable to see or communicate with each other.

Communications and travel between North Korea and the rest of the world, particularly South Korea and the United States, remain highly restricted. Since 1985, there have been 21 state-organized family reunion meetings for citizens of North and South Korea, bringing together more than 44,000 families. However, these reunions consist of brief, often tearful meetings before the families return to a state of separation. Korean-Americans and others in the Korean diaspora have not had similar opportunities, due to a relative dearth of official assistance or channels of engagement for facilitating reunions with their loved ones in North Korea.

In recent years, there have been increasing levels of grassroots activism in support of reuniting divided Korean-American families, leading to statements of U.S. government support for this issue and passage of bipartisan Congressional legislation addressing it. However, reunions for Korean-American families remain an elusive goal due to many external factors. Legal barriers to free travel and communication between the U.S. and North Korea, as well as a lack of institutional memory and political will to identify and match separated family members, make the logistics of such reunions highly challenging. The entanglement of the issue with broader political and security issues in U.S.-DPRK negotiations adds a further set of obstacles.

The North Korean government has refused to include U.S. citizens in inter-Korean reunions and has insisted that Washington and Pyongyang deal with the Korean-American divided families issue bilaterally. Meanwhile, Seoul has prioritized giving limited reunion spots to its own citizens. Korean-Americans without dual citizenship have only been able to participate in inter-Korean family reunions vicariously through immediate family members in South Korea or have had to resort to privately organized reunions through often-unreliable third-party brokers.

Historical context: the separation of families during the Korean War and Korean immigration to the U.S.

The majority of divided family members were separated as refugees fleeing the Korean War. Because there was no expectation that the peninsula would be divided indefinitely, families pursued different strategies to escape the dangers of military conflict as the fighting approached and later escalated. Some Korean families were divided when individuals fled to Manchuria or across the 38th Parallel before the outbreak of the Korean War. At the time of the UN Command’s retreat from North Korea following China’s entry into the war, a large number of Korean refugees also relocated southward. Others became separated when family members were taken as prisoners of war and never repatriated, or were abducted as civilian hostages and forcibly taken to North Korea.

Accounting for Korean-American divided families is an important first step in potentially facilitating their reunions with relatives in North Korea. The number of Korean-Americans who have relatives in North Korea is most frequently estimated to be 100,000, a figure that experts and advocates have derived from 2000 U.S. Census data and the ratio of divided families in South Korea. Though Congressional legislation, media articles, and advocacy efforts widely cite this number, without an official nationwide program to identify and register Korean divided families, this figure remains tentative.2

Notwithstanding such need, it is difficult to quantify the number of Korean-American divided families due to the reluctance of many Korean-Americans to self-identify or speak out as divided family members. The perceived shame – carried over from Cold War times – of being associated with relatives in North Korea, as well as language and cultural barriers for many first-generation immigrants, tempers self-identification and self-advocacy to the point where they do not share their stories with their children or grandchildren, much less unfamiliar organizations.3 The desire to protect their relatives in North Korea from political exploitation may also be a contributing factor to the lack of vocalization and awareness among the Korean-American community. According to a survey conducted by James Foley, an expert on Korean divided families, while over 80 percent of South Korean divided families did not know the status of their relatives in North Korea and wanted to contact them, two-thirds of respondents stated that they made no attempt to do so due to “fear of incurring problems" for their relatives in North Korea.4

Though the overwhelming majority of the nearly two million Korean-Americans in the United States arrived as South Korean citizens,5 it is likely that many of them can trace their family roots to North Korea. Many people with North Korean roots faced discrimination in post-war South Korean society, and refugees from the North generally had fewer deeply rooted social, family, or property ties in the South than their non-displaced neighbors. It is therefore very plausible that a relatively high number of Koreans originally from the North decided to immigrate to start new lives in the United States, and that the proportion of Korean-Americans from divided families is consequently higher than that of the general South Korean population. According to scholar Ji-Yeon Yuh, the majority of Korean immigrants who settled in the United States before the early 1980’s traced their hometown to North Korea.6

Inter-Korean family reunions

As of 2021, the average age of South Korean divided family members was 82.4.7 Thousands in South Korea pass away every year without ever having the chance to meet their families. According to a December 2021 survey from the South Korean Ministry of Unification, more than 68% out of the 133,675 applicants who applied for the lottery for inter-Korean family reunions since 1988 have already passed away, while over 85% of the remaining 42,000 people are over the age of 70.8 The survey results indicate that fewer than 20% of respondents have been able to ascertain the fate of their family members in North Korea, which remains the highest priority, followed by in-person reunions, letter exchanges, and hometown visits.8

Though the origins of Korean family divisions are the same, the paths for reunions diverge over citizenship issues. The inter-Korean exchange program, operated on the South Korean side by the ROK Red Cross in coordination with the Ministry of Unification, allows people to register for the inter-Korean reunion lottery, as well as for the opportunity to submit a video message to family in the North or to obtain information on the status of their relatives. However. Only 40 out of the 22,000 video messages collected by the South Korean Ministry of Unification have been received and delivered by the North Korean government.9 The Ministry of Unification also has a program to support its citizens who attempt family reunions via private brokers in third countries such as China.10 Only South Korean citizens are eligible to apply for these programs; members of the Korean diaspora, including Korean-Americans, are not. 11 However, organizations of first-generation divided family members based in South Korea – such as the Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces, the Association for Reuniting the Ten Million Divided Families, and the National Unification Advisory Council – maintain chapters in the United States, where they manage a network of Korean-American divided families through local programming.12

After the Korean War, there were unofficial attempts at reuniting families that had been separated within South Korea, including a popular live televised program of “finding dispersed families” in 1983 run by the Korean Broadcasting Service that lasted 138 days and reunited 10,189 families. However, it was only in 1985, following over a decade of negotiations between the North and South Korean branches of the Red Cross, that the two governments agreed on a formal inter-Korean family reunion program. A pair of reunion events soon took place in Seoul and Pyongyang, but the occurrence would not be repeated for another 15 years.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy of prioritizing cooperation and engagement with North Korea, which began in the late 1990s, rekindled hopes that divided families could reunite. In the June 15, 2000 North-South Joint Declaration between the leaders of the two Koreas, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong Il explicitly agreed to “exchange visits by separated family members and relatives,” opening the floodgates for reunion programs to take place on a regular basis.13 The pace of inter-Korean family reunions increased in the subsequent administration of Roh Moo-hyun, who continued his predecessor’s engagement policies. However, the frequency of reunions dropped under the more conservative governments led by Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, reflecting the deteriorating state of inter-Korean relations during their tenure.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has attempted to prioritize the issue of divided families, highlighting the importance and urgency of reunions in several speeches and policy statements and even suggesting the inclusion of Korean-Americans in inter-Korean family reunions.14 Furthermore, the South Korean government has reaffirmed its support for privately organized reunions by supporting South Korean citizens attempting to reunite with their relatives through Chinese brokers, and received a sanctions waiver from the United Nations Security Council for updating video conferencing equipment for family reunions.15 However, the North Korean government has largely rebuffed or ignored these overtures, putting inter-Korean family reunions on hold since 2018. North Korea has instead announced that it would demolish South Korean-built buildings at the Kumgang mountain resort, the site of most inter-Korean reunions.16

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which has been in power in South Korea since 2022, has vowed to make family reunions a priority, calling on Pyongyang to support the implementation of family reunions and designating a commemorative day for separated families from the Korean War.17

Since the June 15 Joint Declaration, 4,290 families (20,604 individuals) have been able to participate in in-person inter-Korean government sponsored reunion programs, in addition to 7,970 families who obtained information on the status of their relatives in North Korea and 679 letter exchanges.18 Since 2005, there have also been seven rounds of video reunions between 557 families (3,748 individuals), in which divided family members speak to each other remotely at facilities designated by the two governments, as well as 22,062 recorded video messages.19

Though family reunion participants from the South are chosen randomly via lottery, the selection process for North Korean divided family members is less clear, with some surmising that they are chosen based on their loyalty to the North Korean government. Furthermore, participants from North Korea are accompanied by government minders who monitor the conversations as well as the gifts that South Korean family members bring. While generating news headlines and considerable attention worldwide, inter-Korean reunions have also been criticized as media spectacles that prioritize presentation over privacy for the participants.20

Family separation has been described as a traumatic experience for all divided family members, with prolonged psychosocial consequences and a high likelihood of damage to mental health; the brief and infrequent nature of inter-Korean reunions may, in many cases, only compound this psychological burden.21 Participants of the inter-Korean reunion in 2000 received clinical treatment for PTSD symptoms, possibly due to the shock of reuniting and then saying farewell to their families in such a short period of time.22 Some, including the American Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross, note that family reunions are a temporary quick fix, pointing out the risk of “double trauma” of individuals being separated from their family members again and highlighting the need for a more permanent mechanism for family reunions. One scholar in particular has recommended that reunion programs should take these factors into consideration and provide support services to minimize mental and emotional trauma while maximizing privacy and sustainability.23

Additionally, inter-Korean reunion programs have not included measures for American citizens to participate; Pyongyang has preferred to negotiate directly with Washington on this issue. However, despite the North Korean government’s resistance to including American citizens, the South Korean government allowed a handful of immediate family members residing overseas – regardless of their citizenship – to participate in inter-Korean reunions if their South Korean relatives were selected in the lottery. During his tenure, Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Ambassador Robert King also raised this issue several times with officials from the South Korean Ministry of Unification and the Foreign Ministry, urging them to include Americans in their meetings on a more sustained basis. South Korea’s success in organizing inter-Korean reunions after 2000 gave hope to Korean-American divided family members, and motivated some Korean-Americans to try to find out about the whereabouts and status of their family members in North Korea.

Efforts by Korean-American divided family members to reunite with North Korean relatives

The absence of formal U.S.-DPRK diplomatic relations compounds the difficulty of establishing a government-to-government mechanism of family reunions, particularly given the sustained communication and political will needed to implement such a program. Largely excluded from participating in inter-Korean reunions, most elderly Korean-Americans seeking to reconnect with their families in North Korea have largely been left with two alternatives: liaising with the North Korean government or relying on third-party brokers.

The admission of the DPRK as an observer state to the UN in 1973 and establishment of a diplomatic office – or Permanent Mission – to the UN in New York enabled the North Korean government to have a physical presence in the U.S. for the first time and to access Korean-Americans more directly.24 As a result, some Korean-Americans attempted to contact and reunite with their family members through organizations linked to the North Korean government. The primary channel for such contact has been the Korean-American National Coordinating Council (KANCC), a U.S.-based NGO that works as a liaison for the Association for Overseas Compatriots, a North Korean Workers’ Party agency responsible for engaging with the Korean-American community, particularly on family reunion or letter exchange operations.25 Given the distrust of the North Korean government among elderly Korean-Americans, the potential risk of identification and monitoring of family members by North Korean authorities, as well as the unpredictable success rate of matches through the KANCC, many elderly Korean-Americans are reluctant to engage further with the organization or unofficially with the North Korean government. According to one KANCC organizer, some Korean-American participants’ criticism of the North Korean government also contributed to a suspension of KANCC-facilitated visits to North Korea for almost a decade, from 1994 to 2004.26

One anecdotal case of privately facilitated family reunions came through Heang Ki Paik, the secretary of the Northern California chapter of the Council of People from the Northern Provinces. Leveraging his longstanding personal relationship with diplomats at the DPRK Mission to the UN, Mr. Paik successfully facilitated visits to North Korea for four Korean-Americans, who were able to meet with their relatives, and found matches for eight other divided families.27 Many Korean-American divided families, however, have proven reluctant to engage with the North Korean government on these kinds of private programs.

American divided family members also have attempted to pursue family reunions through unofficial channels facilitated by Chosonjok (ethnic Korean Chinese) brokers in China or Canada. These networks have enabled some successful family reunions, and have even led to a few instances of Korean-Americans smuggling family members out of North Korea through China. However, there have also been several cases that either turned out to be scams or that resulted in a failure to locate the correct family members, despite the exorbitant costs that divided family members paid up front in cash.

Reliance on these unofficial channels has often led to dangerous and exploitative situations that put multiple parties at risk. Some divided family members who used brokers reportedly paid upwards of $90,000 in an attempt to simply learn about their family members’ whereabouts or for an opportunity for reunion. The fees were subjective and brokers did not provide any documents proving their credentials or receipts for their business transactions.28

Advocacy efforts by NGOs to raise the issue and open official channels

Advocates for divided Korean-American families have argued that reunions are a fundamentally humanitarian issue that ought to be pursued for its own sake, and should not be tied to concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program or U.S. sanctions policy. As grassroots organizations have worked to raise awareness of this issue over the last two decades, they have found wide support across multiple branches of the U.S. government, including the State Department and a bipartisan array of Congressional offices. It would be difficult to find explicit opposition to the idea of U.S.-DPRK family reunions among U.S. policymakers, even though it has been necessary for advocacy groups to engage in persistent grassroots lobbying on this issue to keep it from falling on the priority list.

In 2001, a grassroots advocacy campaign led by Chahee Lee Stanfield and the Korean-American community in Chicago caught the attention of Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL), who subsequently pushed Secretary of State Colin Powell to make family reunions a priority issue in the event that the United States and North Korea normalized relations.29 In 2007, Representative Kirk and Representative Jim Matheson (D-UT) established the bipartisan 10-member Congressional Commission on Divided Families, the first official U.S. government mechanism dedicated to the issue of U.S.-DPRK family reunions. These efforts eventually led to the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 77 (sponsored by Rep. Xavier Becerra and Rep. Ed Royce) and Senate Concurrent Resolution 90 (sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Charles Hagel).30 These resolutions called on the President to “support efforts to reunite people of the United States of Korean ancestry with their families in North Korea.” The issue of divided families was also included in the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which states that "United States non-humanitarian assistance to North Korea shall be contingent on North Korea’s substantial progress toward...providing for family reunification between North Koreans and their descendants and relatives in the United States."31 However, North Korea has criticized the U.S. for linking calls for family reunions with criticism of the country’s human rights record, as the DPRK government sees raising human rights as a tool of U.S. “hostile policy.”32

Beginning in 2006, the Saemsori Project, an initiative of the Eugene Bell Foundation (a non-government organization focused on providing medical humanitarian assistance to North Korea), worked to promote awareness about the divided families issue across the country, create an informal registry of divided family members, and push for legislation. From 2008, the National Coalition on the Divided Families, a group of first generation Korean community leaders from 12 states, spearheaded a grassroots advocacy effort among Korean-American communities. With support from former Representative Mark Kirk, these efforts led to the inclusion of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 4986, Section 1265) that directed the President to report to Congress on family reunions between U.S. citizens and their relatives in North Korea.33 Saemsori also worked to include a provision in the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 (Public Law 111-242), which urged “the Special Representative on North Korea policy to prioritize the issues involving Korean divided families, and to, if necessary, appoint a coordinator for such families.”34

There appeared to be a ripe opportunity for a pilot program of U.S.-DPRK family reunions in 2011 when, at the urging of Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL),35 Secretary Hillary Clinton proposed including this subject in U.S. talks with North Korea. In a subsequent visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of a U.S. detainee and discuss the possibility of U.S. food aid to North Korea, Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Robert King also raised the subject of divided families, and received a positive response from the North Korean side. Discussions to identify divided family members who could participate in a reunion meeting continued throughout the year, but the sudden death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011 disrupted these negotiations. The subsequent failure of the short-lived “Leap Day Deal,” under which North Korea would curb its nuclear activities and the U.S. would provide nutritional assistance, dashed any hopes for a completion of the pilot program for family reunions.36

Advocacy for these reunions has continued despite the setback. On November 29, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed joint resolution H.Con.Res. 40, encouraging North Korea to allow Korean-Americans to meet with their families in North Korea. In a press release on the resolution’s passage, Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), who introduced the resolution, noted that it “lays the foundation for divided family members to meet their loved ones whom they have not been able to see for over six decades… These Americans have every right to see their loved ones and it is our duty to help them by encouraging reunions.”37 However, North Korean state media sharply criticized H.Con.Res. 40, calling it a “a trick to cover up the criminal nature of the U.S. which spawned the issue of divided families” through its role in the division of the Korean Peninsula and its “illegal occupation of south Korea.”38

Some efforts to build momentum on the issue have been unsuccessful. For example, the version of the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017-18 introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 2061) included a clause on “reuniting Korean-Americans with their relatives in North Korea,” but the Senate counterpart bill and the ultimate version of the legislation did not.

In the past few years, Divided Families USA, a grassroots coalition of Korean-Americans, has carried on the work of Saemsori by advocating for a formal mechanism of U.S.-DPRK family reunions, managing its own informal Korean-American divided family registry and liaising with the U.S. government. A handful of other Korean-American organizations, such as the Korean American Grassroots Conference, the Korean American Public Action Committee, and the Council of Korean Americans, as well as NGOs doing humanitarian work in North Korea such as the American Friends Service Committee, have worked to elevate this issue to a national level.

Today, there is renewed interest and hope for this issue including the first-ever congressional forum featuring testimonies from Korean-American divided family members in June 2019, hosted by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.39 In March 2019, Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY) introduced the Divided Families Reunification Act (H.R. 1771), which became law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in December 202240. The bill requires the U.S. Special Envoy on North Korea Human Rights Issues to consult bi-annually with representatives of Americans with family members in North Korea about its efforts to support family reunions, and to report to Congress on opportunities to utilize video conference technology to encourage virtual reunions.41

There have also been bipartisan resolutions similar to H.Con.Res. 40 such as H.Res. 410 introduced by Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) in 2019, and mostly recently H.Res. 126 by Congresswoman Young Kim (R-CA) in 2023.42 In March 2020, both H.R. 1771 and H.Res. 410 passed unanimously in the House of Representatives.43 The nomination of Julie Turner as US Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea in January 2023, which has been vacant since 2017, has also given members of the Korean American community hope that the US government will make family reunions a priority in North Korea policymaking.44

Contemporary challenges and outlook for Korean-American divided families

Though the United States has continued to raise the issue of family reunions during negotiations with North Korea, including at the Hanoi Summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in February 2019, the North Korean government has shown little interest in reciprocating these efforts.

The issue of family reunions has been seen by some as a bargaining chip for the North Korean government for political and economic concessions, and the political machinations of Pyongyang remain a significant obstacle to a system of regular, timely, and inclusive reunions. On the other hand, as former North Korean diplomat (and recently elected ROK National Assemblyman) Thae Yong Ho notes, financial support for modernizing and building additional reunion facilities could help regularize reunions and reduce the burden on the North Korean government, as long as it does not violate UN sanctions.45

According to a nationwide survey conducted in January 2023, 66% of Americans support collaboration between the US and North Korean governments to reunite Korean Americans and their family members in North Korea.46 Despite the urgency of the issue and widespread recognition of the humanitarian value of family reunions, major political and logistical challenges stand in the way of making reunions a reality. Above all, U.S.-DPRK negotiations (and in a different way, inter-Korean relations) remain deadlocked over fundamental disagreements on Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. Furthermore, since September 2017, the State Department has barred U.S. citizens from using U.S. passports to travel to North Korea, a decision issued in the wake of the death of American college student Otto Warmbier.47 It is unclear under what circumstances the State Department might be willing to grant exceptions to this passport restriction for American citizens seeking to visit family members in North Korea; humanitarian NGOs and Korean-American organizations have therefore spoken out against the potential impact such passport restrictions could have on Korean-American divided families.48

Furthermore, the issue of family reunions remains on the State Department’s agenda, yet has been stymied by a lack of bandwidth to organize a reunion program on its own or even report on the issue to Congress. Thus, the State Department has largely relied on the initiative of external actors, expressing the need for financial support from private donors, information from the Korean-American community about potential participants, and most importantly, a “green light” at the presidential level.

There is also the practical difficulty of identifying and locating divided families in North Korea given the North Korean government and Red Cross’ limited capacity and infrastructure, especially after more than seventy years of separation. Additionally, there is the question of sustainability of such efforts when some divided families meet and realize that they have become such different people due to the passage of time and living in such different political systems.

Analysts have pointed out that a formal agreement on family reunions could be part of the process of normalizing diplomatic relations between the United States and North Korea, or a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War.49 Barring a major breakthrough in U.S.-DPRK relations, however, the two governments in the meantime can work on identifying divided family members who are still willing and able to participate in a reunion program. While NGOs have been attempting to fill this role on a grassroots level for several years, a government-led initiative could provide the necessary resources, access to information for a comprehensive divided family database, and credibility among the elderly Korean-American community necessary to make reunions a reality.

Korean-American divided families are a living reminder of the unresolved nature of the Korean War and its lingering human costs. Given the seven decades that have passed since this conflict began, the window of opportunity for Korean-Americans with memories of their North Korean relatives to see them one last time is closing quickly. These divided families are a rare human link between the United States and North Korea. Their reunions would be deeply meaningful on a personal level, and could perhaps build trust and contribute to dialogue between the two countries as well.

About the Author

Paul Kyumin Lee is an M.Phil Candidate in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin's Irish School of Ecumenics in Belfast, Northern Ireland through the support of the US-UK Fulbright Commission's All Disciplines Postgraduate Award. Paul previously worked on the Youth Program and the Northeast Asia Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Before joining USIP, Paul worked in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow. Since 2016, Paul has been part of the leadership of Divided Families USA, an NGO that advocates for a formal mechanism for Korean Americans to reunite with their relatives in North Korea, and is the co-founder and co-host of the Divided Families Podcast, a platform for connecting stories of family separation.

 Paul has been a dialogue facilitator for the Words of Engagement Intergroup Dialogue Program at the University of Maryland, the Strait Talk Symposium, a civil society dialogue workshop at Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley for youth from mainland China and Taiwan, and at Seeds of Peace, a summer camp in Maine for teenagers from conflict areas. He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s in political science and speaks Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish. 

Notes

• 1. James A. Foley, “‘Ten Million Families’: Statistic or Metaphor?” Korean Studies 25, no. 1 (2001): 96–110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23719473.
• 2. James Foley, Korea's Divided Families: Fifty Years of Separation (Routledge, 2004), 59-60.
• 3. Nan Kim, Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea: Crossing the Divide (Lexington Books, 2017).
• 4. James A. Foley, “‘Sunshine’ or Showers for Korea’s Divided Families?” World Affairs, Vol. 165, No. 4 (Spring 2003), 179-184.
• 5. "Koreans in the U.S. Fact Sheet," Pew Research Center, September 8, 2017.
• 6. Ji-Yeon Yuh, "The Korean War: A Still Present Past," Still Present Pasts, Accessed April 17, 2020.
• 7. Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea, "Findings of the 2021 Survey of Separated Families," December 9, 2021, https://www.unikorea.go.kr/eng_unikorea/news/releases/?boardId=bbs_0000000000000034&mode=view&cntId=54268&category=&pageIdx=.
• 8. a. b. ibid.
• 9. James A. Foley, "Korea’s Divided Families: Time and the Vanishing Hopes of the First Generation," 38 North, September 21, 2020 https://www.38north.org/2020/09/jfoley092120/.
• 10. According to the “Guidelines for Supporting Divided Families Exchange Act,” the South Korean government will provide up to 30 million won (approximately $2,600 USD) for private attempts to obtain information on the status of relatives in North Korea, 60 million won (approximately $5,000 USD) for in-person reunion efforts, and 800 thousand won (approximately $650 USD) for letter exchanges. In practice, however, the risk involved for relatives in North Korea and the initiative required to arrange a private reunion has deterred most South Koreans from pursuing this route.
• 11. According to a December 2019 report by the South Korean Ministry of Unification, 784 (67 percent) of the 1,171 overseas residents who have registered with the South Korean Ministry of Unification (2.2 percent of the total) reside in the United States. "이산가족 문제 해결을 위한 22개 세부 추진과제 구체화" [22-Part Detailed Plan Toward the Resolution of the Issue of Family Separation], Republic of Korea Ministry of Unification], December 31, 2019.
• 12. 이북도민회중앙연합회 [Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces]; "[보고 싶은 얼굴] 일천만 이산가족위원회 워싱턴지회 민명기 지회장" [Faces that We Wish to See: President of the Washington DC Chapter of the Association for Reuniting the Ten Million Divided Families Min Myung-ki], Radio Free Asia, August 31, 2011; "About the 19th Overseas Municipal Chapter," The National Unification Advisory Council.
• 13. Jason Ahn, “Finding Family: How a Personal Journey Led to a Dream Project,” Harvard Kennedy School Asian American Policy Review, Vol. 19, (2010): 59-66.
• 14. Wooyoung Lee, "North and South Korea discuss inviting Korean-Americans to family reunion," UPI, November 28, 2018.
• 15. "UN grants sanctions exemption for video reunions of separated families," The Korea Herald, March 4, 2019; Lee Je-hoon, "통일부, 중국여행사 통한 이산가족 북녘 고향 방문 추진" [Ministry of Unification to Promote Hometown Visits to the North for Divided Families through Chinese Travel Agencies], The Hankyoreh, December 31, 2019.
• 16. "Moon vows efforts for reunions of separated families in two Koreas," Yonhap News, January 23, 2020; Justin McCurry, "Kim Jong-un orders razing of South's ‘unpleasant' Mount Kumgang buildings," The Guardian, October 23, 2019.
• 17. "S. Korea designates Aug. 13 on lunar calendar as Separated Families Day," Yonhap News, February 28, 2023 https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230228005400325; "S. Korean minister urges N. Korea to respond to offer of talks on separated families," Yonhap News, March 2, 2023 https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230302004300325; Esther Chung, "Yoon administration to push inter-Korean info exchanges," Choongang Daily, January 27, 2023 https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/01/27/national/northKorea/korea-north-korea-unification/20230127172547723.html.
• 18. "South-North Joint Declaration," June 15, 2000; "남북 이산가족 상봉 추이" [Progress in Inter-Korean Divided Family Reunions], National Progress Indicators, Last Updated March 19, 2020.
• 19. Combined, government-organized and privately organized reunions have involved 23,342 participants (17,228 visiting the North, 2,700 visiting the South, and 3,414 participating in privately organized reunions), while 3,748 people have participated in video reunions. "남북이산가족 화상상봉 실시에 관한 합의서" [Agreement on the Implementation of Inter-Korean Divided Family Video Reunions], Republic of Korea Ministry of Unification, November 18, 2005.
• 20. John Power, "The Dark Side of the Korean Family Reunions," The Diplomat, October 23, 2015.
• 21. Daniel Boo and Duck Lee, "Divided Korean Families,”: Why Does It Take So Long to Remedy the Unhealed Wounds?" op. cit.
• 22. James Foley, Korea's Divided Families: Fifty Years of Separation, op. cit.
• 23. Jungyoung Park, "Korean-American Divided Families: catalyst for changing the course of the USA policy on North Korea," SIT Graduate Institute Capstone Collection 2546, May 2012.
• 24. In 1991, the DPRK joined the UN as a formal member along with the Republic of Korea.
• 25. "Korean American National Coordinating Council"; "[미주지역] 친북단체들 `재미동포연합회' 결성" [US Region: Pro-North Organizations Form 'Korean-American National Coordinating Council'], The Chosun Ilbo, September 10, 1997; Hur Eun-kyung, "A Study on North Korean Institutions on Overseas Korean Affairs Focusing on the Korean Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots and the Agency of Overseas Korean Affairs," Yonsei University Unification Research Institute, Unification Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, November 2015, 159-190.
• 26. “기획 인터뷰] 재미동포전국연합회 주남훈 워싱턴 지부장," [Planned Interview: Korean-American National Coordinating Council Washington DC Regional Chapter President Joo Nam-hoon], Radio Free Asia, 2004.
• 27. Sophie Haigney, "Bay Area resident seeks to reunite divided Korean families," San Francisco Chronicle, January 15, 2018; Paik Seong-won, "북한, 재미 이산가족 2명에 가족 거주지 통보…상봉 적극 주선," [North Korea Notifies Two Korean Americans Divided Family Members of Their Relatives' Addresses...Proactively Promote Reunions], Voice of America, May 29, 2018.
• 28. Jungyoung Park, “Korean-American Divided Families,” op. cit.
• 29. Erin Kim, "Advocates Push to See North Korean Family 'Before It's Too Late'," NBC News, September 1, 2016,.
• 30. "H.Con.Res.77 - Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the efforts of people of the United States of Korean ancestry to reunite with their family members in North Korea," The 107th Congress (2001-2002); "S.Con.Res.90 - A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the efforts of people of the United States of Korean ancestry to reunite with their family members in North Korea," The 107th Congress (2001-2002).
• 31. Stephan Haggard and Kent Boydston, "Divided Families and Korean Americans," Peterson Institute for International Economics, November 4, 2016.
• 32. “Rodong Sinmun Blasts U.S. for Attempt to Rub Salt into Wound of Korean Americans,” Korean Central News Agency, November 12, 2016.
• 33. "H.R.4986 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008," Section 1265, 110th Congress (2007-2008).
• 34. "H.R. 3081: Public Law 111–242," 111th Congress, September 30, 2010.
• 35. Mark Kirk, Letter to Hillary Clinton, March 30, 2011.
• 36. In parallel with talks related to the Leap Day Deal and divided families, the U.S. also engaged North Korea in discussions about the resumption of missions to recover the remains of U.S. service members from the Korean War. These negotiations also foundered after the collapse of the Leap Day Deal.
• 37. "H.Con.Res. 40 - Encouraging reunions of divided Korean American families," November 30, 2016.
• 38. “Recent U.S. Congress ‘Resolution’ on Reunion of Divided Families and Relatives of Korean Americans Blasted,” Korean Central News Agency, December 12, 2016.
• 39. "Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Hosts Forum on North Korea," Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, June 12, 2019.
• 40. Meng Legislation to Help Korean American Families Reunite with Loved Ones in North Korea Passed by House," Office of Congresswoman Grace Meng, December 8, 2022 https://meng.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/meng-legislation-to-help-korean-american-families-reunite-with-loved#:~:text=The%20Divided%20Families%20Reunification%20Act,their%20relatives%20in%20North%20Korea.
• 41. "H.R.1771 - Divided Families Reunification Act," 116th Congress (2019-2020). Robert King, who served as Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights from September 2009 through January 2017, had been active in serving as a de facto liaison for U.S.-DPRK family reunions with Pyongyang, Seoul, and the American Red Cross; however, this position has been vacant since his departure, despite the statutory requirement that it be filled.
• 42. "Rep. Young Kim Leads Bipartisan Resolution to Support Reunions of Korean American Divided Families," Office of Congresswoman Young Kim, February 14, 2023 https://youngkim.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-young-kim-leads-bipartisan-resolution-support-reunions-korean-american)
• 43. Jacob Fromer, "U.S. House passes bill saying Korean-Americans should be part of family reunions," NK News, March 9, 2020.
• 44.  Christy Lee, "US Nomination of North Korea Rights Envoy Revives Hope for Divided Families," Voice of America, February 1, 2023 https://www.voanews.com/a/6943053.html
• 45. Thae Yong-ho, "이산가족상봉에 체제위협 느껴" [The North Korean Government Feels Threatened by Family Reunions], The Jayoo Ilbo, August 24, 2018.
• 46. "Attitudes toward U.S. Relationships with North Korea and China: AFSC-Harris Poll," The Harris Poll, February 3, 2023, https://theharrispoll.com/briefs/afsc-harris-poll/
• 47. "North Korea Travel Restriction," U.S. Department of State, August 2, 2017.
• 48. Anna Fifield, "Aid Workers, Korean Americans Voice Concern about New North Korea Travel Rules," The Washington Post, August 1, 2017.
• 49. Frank Aum, Jacob Stokes, Patricia M. Kim, Atman M. Trivedi, Rachel Vandenbrink, Jennifer Staats, and Ambassador Joseph Yun, "A Peace Regime for the Korean Peninsula," United States Institute of Peace, February 3, 2020; Olivia Enos and Yujin Kim, "For Korean Americans, Divided-Family Reunification Act Is a Ray of Hope," The Heritage Foundation, January 15, 2020.