Tag: north korea

It happened to me on a day in early July 1950. I was a student in the first grade of Bosung Middle School located in Hyaewha Dong, Seoul, Korea. At this point, I will explain Korean political and military situations.Korea was emancipated on August 15, 1945, out of Japanese occupation for 35 years since August 29, 1910. Korea has been divided between South and North Koreas soon after the Japanese Surrender on August 15, 1945, and South Korea established the Democratic Government on May 10, 1948, under the leadership of President Syngman Rhee. There was the complete and permanent division of the Korean Peninsula across the latitude of the 38th Parallel North and hostilities between these two divided Countries including the frequent military clashes.

It happened in the year of 1950 during the summer, possibly in late July. My mother, sister, and I were treading in a lonely country road heading to the village of Yongmun, Gyeonggi-do, where my sister and her family were living.

Born in 1944 in the city of Harbin in what was then called the Manchuria region of China, Regina Park experienced the hardships of the Korean War at a young age. Her memories of the war include fleeing from Pyongyang, North Korea to South Korea with her family in the dead of night and receiving milk porridge from American soldiers on the street in order to survive. After meeting her husband through her uncle, Ms. Park applied for a green card and moved to the U.S. in her late twenties to start a new life. Her story is one of incredible resilience, courage, and tenacity.

James Jin-Han Wang was born in 1940 in what is now the capital of North Korea, Pyeongyang. Mr. Wang recalls the long and difficult journey of fleeing on foot to the South with his family when he was just ten years old. When the Han River Bridge was bombed down in an attempt to prevent North Korean soldiers from further invading the South, Mr. Wang’s father was separated from the rest of the family. His pregnant mother was left alone with three young children, of which one died shortly after contracting polio, and her newborn son died shortly after birth due to starvation. After graduating from Seoul National University, Mr. Wang worked in Korea for a few years before coming to America with big dreams of a new life for himself. Now having owned various different businesses and retiring, his biggest wish is for his daughters and granddaughter to simply be happy.

Mary Kim, born in North Korea, grew up in Seoul during both the Japanese occupation and the breakout of the Korean War. Ms. Kim shares her memories of being punished for speaking Korean and hearing rumors about women being recruited as comfort women in her hometown. She also recalls the difficulty of trying to stay alive during the war with vivid memories of scavenging and rationing out foods like potato powder and barley. Ms. Kim’s husband was able to immigrate to America, rare at the time, through his medical research work. Ms. Kim soon followed with their children with the dream of securing their family’s safety and future lives.

When Daniel Chung found himself surrounded by eight soldiers on the border of North Korea and China, he knew he had to figure his own way out somehow.

Sylvia is a lawyer by trade and also the Chief Innovation Officer at the Asian Pacific Community Fund based in Los Angeles.

Fighting poverty and homelessness never stops for Jean Kim.

Born in 1935 in what is now North Korea, Jean Kim lived through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War, losing her language, family, and home.

Seungjin Lee takes us back into his family’s story before his move to the U.S.

Yung Duk Kim was born in North Korea and escaped to the South with his family as a 13-year-old boy.

Dju Hyun Park recalls her harrowing escape from North Korea to South Korea.

Dju Hyun Park grew up in a wealthy family in North Korea, but affluence did not ensure an easy life.

Kim J Chung shares how she met her husband, and how the two were an unlikely pair.

Kim J Chung shares how her family crossed the border from North Korea to South Korea.

As a professor with over forty years teaching political science at the University of Georgia, Han Shik Park shares his thoughts on North Korea,

Han Shik Park is no stranger to war. Born near what is now Harbin amidst Chinese civil unrest, Park eventually moved to South Korea after the surrender of the Japanese.

Joseph Kim, former TED speaker and author of Under the Same Sky, talks about his time in China and how he came to U.S. in this week’s KoreanAmericanStory, KRB 87.7FM.

Joseph Kim, former TED speaker and author of Under the Same Sky, talks about his life journey from North Korea to the U.S. with the hosts of KRB 87.7.FM in this week’s KoreanAmericanStory.

Civic activist Aiyoung Choi recounts her father escaping to China to avoid being forced to research new technologies for the Japanese war effort

When riots erupted throughout Los Angeles in 1992, the same thing was happening in Atlanta—destroying the local K-town area.

Jwa Kyung Shin was born in 1914 in Korea. She was 100 years old at the time of the interview.

Mrs. Jungsook Choh was born in 1935 in Uhrae-Jin, Hamkyung-Namdo, which is now in North Korea.

Dr. Jeff Choh is an interventional radiologist who was born in Korea, immigrated to Ohio in 1972 and now lives in the Chicago area.

Dr. James ChinKyung Kim is no ordinary man, containing the spunk and spirit of a teenage boy.

Since junior high school, Kang Lee’s aspiration was to become one of the greatest scientists Korea has produced. His father, who was the chairman of the biology department at Seoul National University, was kidnapped by the North Koreans during the Korean War. His mother was left to raise 6 children on her own. Kang Lee managed to find scholarships which allowed him to attend his junior high school and high school, and eventually worked his way through Seoul National University as a private tutor. He came to the USA to attend MIT, where he received his PhD. In 1984 he founded Aspen Systems, where he is still the CEO today.

This is an amazing story of struggle and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Despite a lifetime of struggles and successes, Kang Lee remains an incredibly optimistic and humble person.

“You know how sometimes you meet someone and it just clicks,” Kleisley said. “That’s how it was when I first met Mark.” That 1951 chance meeting near a stream in Korea blossomed into a 60-plus-year friendship for the Marine from Rochester, N.Y., and the former homeless kid from North Korea.

“Divided Families,” the documentary that Ahn co-directed and co-produced, tells the stories of Korean American immigrants who have been separated from family members in North Korea for more than fifty years as a result of the Korean War, which divided the country into north and south.

Legacy Project video of Dr. Byoung G. Choh of Cleveland, Ohio interviewed by his daughter, Theresa Choh-Lee.