The divided families problem is a serious social issue in North and South Korea, involving hundreds of thousands of first generation divided family members, most of whom have not seen their relatives since the Korean War. It is the most pressing humanitarian issue between the two Koreas, and is connected to the greater issue of human rights in North Korea today. However, little serious academic work exists on the subject, in either English or Korean. This new study, based on research conducted in Korea, including interviews in 2001 with Korean families who benefited from the most recent exchanges, addresses the many issues surrounding the divided family problem, and highlights its importance in the path towards Korean rapprochement.

The divided families problem is a serious social issue in North and South Korea, involving hundreds of thousands of first generation divided family members, most of whom have not seen their relatives since the Korean War. It is the most pressing humanitarian issue between the two Koreas, and is connected to the greater issue of human rights in North Korea today. However, little serious academic work exists on the subject, in either English or Korean. This new study, based on research conducted in Korea, including interviews in 2001 with Korean families who benefited from the most recent exchanges, addresses the many issues surrounding the divided family problem, and highlights its importance in the path towards Korean rapprochement.

Winner of the 2019 Scott Bill Memorial Prize for Outstanding First Book in Peace History Memory, Reconciliation, and Reunions in South Korea: Crossing the Divide explores the history and tells the story of the emotionally charged meetings that took place among family members who, after having lost all contact for over fifty years on opposite sides of the Korean divide, were temporarily reunited in a series of events beginning in 2000. During an unprecedented period of reconciliation between North and South Korea, those nationally televised reunions would prove to be the largest meetings held theretofore among civilians from the two states since the inter-Korean border was sealed following the end of active hostilities in 1953. Drawing on field research during the reunions as they happened, oral histories with family members who participated, interviews among government officials involved in the events’ negotiation and planning, and observations of breakthrough developments at the turn of the millennium, this book narrates a grounded history of these pivotal events. The book further explores the implications of such intimate family encounters for the larger political and cultural processes of moving from a disposition of enmity to one of recognition and engagement through attempts at achieving sustained reconciliation amid the complex legacies of civil war and the global Cold War on the Korean Peninsula.

Explores the effects of divorce on children and their parents.

Describes the busy life of eleven-year-old Chun Yung Mee who lives with her family in a village in the Republic of Korea.