[Korean History] Families separated by war reunite on live TV

For 183 days in 1983, TV helped people reunite with lost family members, setting the stage for exchange family visits between the two Koreas starting in 1985.

A man holds a signboard that shows the names and other information of his family members lost during the Korean War. (KBS)

"History through The Korea Herald” revisits significant events and issues over seven decades through articles, photos and editorial pieces published in the Herald and retells them from a contemporary perspective. – Ed.

In the summer of 1983, Seoul’s Yeouido Park and the nearby area surrounding a TV station building turned into a sea of people, each clutching signboards covered with the details of someone they were searching for.

Thousands had gone there to post a poster for all to see in the hopes of finding their lost loved ones, separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

These heartfelt displays were for the special live TV program, “Finding Dispersed Families,” aired by the state-run Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) to help family members scattered by war reunite.

The July 17, 1983 edition of The Korea Herald

In its July 17th edition, The Korea Herald carried special coverage of the nationwide family reunion drive, with the top story titled, “Family reunion drive rolls on.”

‘Finding Dispersed Families’

The catalyst for this massive outpouring of longing and pain was the KBS TV program, “Finding Dispersed Families.”

It began on June 30 of that year and continued as a live broadcast until early morning on Nov. 14, for a total of 453 hours and 45 minutes.

When it ended, more than 100,000 separated family members had participated in the program, 53,536 of them appearing on TV.

The number of families reunited through the program was 10,189, according to data from the state-run National Archives of Korea.

Launched to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement, the program was originally meant to last for only one and a half hours.

But as TV announcers introduced the tragic stories of separated families on the night of June 30, the broadcasting station was inundated by phone calls from people asking for help. The next day, large crowds swarmed the KBS headquarters and the plaza in front, hoping for a chance to reconnect with their lost family members.

A female announcer introduces the stories of families separated by war during KBS' special live broadcast titled, “Finding Dispersed Families." (KBS)

In the days that followed, South Koreans heard the heartfelt stories of families torn apart by the war and watched as they finally reunited after decades of separation.

An “epic television humanitarian campaign” that holds “monumental value in world broadcasting history” reads the description of the program in the nomination document submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for its inscription on the Memory of the World Register.

The program's 2015 recognition by UNESCO is a highlight among the many international accolades the program has earned.

Tens of thousands of people gather in the area surrounding KBS' headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, to reunite with family members lost during the 1950-53 Korean War. (KBS)

South-North family reunions

The emotional impact of witnessing families being reunited through live television had a profound effect on the South Korean public, leading to a surge in demand for the reunification of families separated by the inter-Korean border.

But the North Korean regime’s reaction to the KBS family reunion campaign was “a big fuss staged in accordance with a scenario,” according to the Herald article.

The two Koreas had held multiple rounds of working-level meetings 1971-1972 on arranging state-organized family reunions, but their talks had hit a wall.

The North continued to “reject Seoul’s repeated call for joint efforts to help reunite them from humanitarian considerations,” according to the article.

But in September 1985, exchange visits of separated families finally took place in Seoul and Pyongyang, following talks between the South and North Red Cross in May of that year.

A group of 50 people each from South and North Korea crossed the border to participate in the reunion program. The exchanges took place two years after KBS had live-broadcast and reported on dramatic family reunions in the South.

State-run family reunions were not officially arranged for 15 years until 2000 when the first-ever inter-Korean summit was held in Pyongyang between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

The reunion event for families torn apart by the war was then held almost annually afterwards, except for in 2008 when a South Korean tourist to Mount Geumgang in North Korea was shot dead by a North Korean soldier.

The reunions resumed in 2009 but were halted for four years again after the 18th round was held in 2010 amid strained South-North relations during the former conservative Lee Myung-bak administration. The 19th round of the reunions was held in 2014, followed by the 20th and 21st rounds, which were held in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

But after the failure to reach a deal on denuclearization at the Hanoi Summit between North Korea and the United States in February 2019, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has been frozen, and there has been no resumption of talks between the South and North over family reunions for almost five years now.

As of the end of last month, the total number of applicants for separated family reunions stood at 133,675. Among them, merely 31.8 percent -- 42,624 people -- are alive, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Unification.

By Choi Jae-hee(cjh@heraldcorp.com)