Jason Ahn

One telltale sign of the state of inter-Korea relations is any news relating to family reunions. The highly staged meetings provide opportunities for Koreans living on either side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to see long-lost family members. While these reunions are rare, and the waiting list is long, there is at least precedent for hope.

Not so for those Americans who left behind family in North Korea decades ago. Today, an estimated 100,000 Korean Americans have immediate family members in North Korea, according to the National Coalition for the Divided Families. Many of them, separated during the Korean War, are now in theirs 80s or older, meaning time is running out on their dreams of family reunions. Jason Ahn, director of a documentary on these Korean Americans, titled “Divided Families,” talks with The Diplomat about their often-overlooked plight.

What inspired you to make the documentary “Divided Families”?

My grandmother was a divided family member. She came to America to search for peace. She had experienced Japanese colonization, World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. She never forgot her younger sister who was left behind in North Korea. It was her “sowon,” or last wish, to reunite with her younger sister. Unfortunately she was unable to realize her last wish.

I realized that my grandmother’s story was common in the Korean American community. In fact there are thousands of Korean Americans who for over 60 years since the Korean War have been divided from their family members. Many of them are in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. Many have passed away. These American citizens do not have any formal ways to find their families in North Korea because of political reasons. 

Knowing that this tragedy was playing out before my eyes I was faced with a choice. I was in medical school, and I realized that I will be a doctor and work to bring health to the poor for the rest of my life, but in five to ten years, the divided families will not be with us and this moment will be lost forever. Every day that passes more of this generation gets a little older, like how every time I go home, I see another wrinkle or gray hair on my mother.  Here we stood at this critical juncture in the human experience. Thus I started the Divided Families Film along with my partner Eugene Chung in order to: 1. Record the history, 2. Raise awareness, and 3. Advocate for this generation.

What progress has there been on the political front in creating an official channel for family reunions?

To date there have been no official divided family reunions. Recently Sen. Mark Kirk introduced Senate Bill 2657, which is the first stand-alone Korean American Divided Families bill.  Per the bill’s text: “This bill directs the Department of State to consult with South Korean officials on potential opportunities to reunite Korean American families with family members in North Korea from whom such Korean American families were divided after the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. At least every 180 days the State Department's Special Representative on North Korea Policy shall consult with representatives of these Korean American families regarding reunification efforts.”

Senator Kirk has been the champion of our cause in Congress and we thank him for his unwavering support.

In the absence of official political ties, some Korean-Americans turn to informal channels to try to contact their family members in the DPRK. What are these channels, and how effective are they?  

Back in the 1990s and 2000s, many Korean Americans turned to brokers. These brokers were usually associated with pro-North Korean organizations, and many required money upfront without any guarantee of reunion. Many divided family members are at a disadvantage because they are emotionally attached to seeing their loved one, and are willing to pay whatever they have for that opportunity. I personally interviewed a retired Korean American in Queens New York, who was swindled out of $10,000.

Furthermore, because it is not government sanctioned, there is an inherent risk of going to North Korea as an individual without government backing. It is a hugely unequal power dynamic, which is why we need our government to back us up.

U.S. public opinion toward North Korea is overwhelmingly negative. In a Gallup poll taken just after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test, North Korea even edged out Russia as the country seen as the “United States’ greatest enemy today.” In your experience, do Americans with family in North Korea share these negative views of the DPRK? How does the negative U.S. perception of North Korea impact their quest to reunite with their family members?

I cannot purport to speak for Korean American Divided Families’ views of North Korea. We have no data on this, but I believe that they immigrated to America for a reason. Much like my grandmother, she believed in the American Dream and many of us here are products of their sacrifice.

I can say that the divided family issue is the only constructive issue between the U.S. and the DPRK. This is a humanitarian issue that should be decoupled from other superpower issues between the communist government and our democratic government.  There is precedent for reuniting divided families in communist states between Cuban Americans, Soviet Jews, and Vietnamese Americans.

South and North Korea have held intermittent family reunions, although the tense political relationship often interferes with these humanitarian efforts. Can U.S. advocates for family reunions gain any lessons to be learned from the South Korean experience?

Absolutely. I believe that the U.S. should partner with the South Koreans by including Korean Americans in the family reunions that should happen between North and South Korea. There is no sense in reinventing the wheel. This is exactly what Senate Bill 2657 is trying to accomplish.

The generation of Korean-Americans with personal memories of their lost family members is dwindling – in the film, Senator Kirk estimates there are only 10-15 years before everyone with a direct relative in North passes away. This is obviously a tragedy for these individuals, but on the larger geopolitical scale, how do you think this lost opportunity for people-to-people connections impacts the U.S.-North Korea relationship?

As I mentioned earlier, I believe that the divided families issue is one of the only constructive issues North Korea and the U.S. can relatively easily agree upon. Who can argue with reuniting separated grandmas and grandpas? If we lose this person-to-person connection, we might be losing the most important human connection between North Korea and the United States. Not only would this be a human tragedy, it will be a political tragedy, in the sense that we missed an opportunity for improving relations between the two countries.  

If we are going to “play this card,” so to speak, it must be done quickly since this generation is dying off quickly. This is a problem that fundamentally must be solved through diplomacy by our governments and not by individual citizens.

I believe that the mark of a government is how it serves its vulnerable, poor, elderly, widowed, and orphaned.  This is an opportunity for both governments to show that they actually care about this elderly group of people, who cannot solve this geopolitical historical problem on their own. This generation has waited a lifetime; Korean American divided family reunions should’ve been done a long time ago.