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A divided family is a family that is divided between two or more countries due to conflict between such countries. Members of a divided family often do not have chance to live together.
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Korea
The division of the Korean peninsula is one of the last remaining relics of the Cold War. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, there has been virtually no contact between the citizens of the two countries, including the many families who were divided during the turmoil that engulfed Korea after liberation from Japanese rule and during the three-year Korean War. Many people in both North and South Korea have lost contact with the rest of their family, and are unable to communicate to them due to strict regulations across borders.
In the 1980s, South Korea held special programs to reunite divided families. Some divided families between South Korea and Korean diaspora who live in Western countries were able to reunite. However, reuniting divided families between the two Koreas remains difficult due to lack of communication.
The problems posed by these divided families is a pressing humanitarian issue that has been used for political ends by the governments on both sides of the 38th parallel over the last five decades. Most families do not know the fate of their relatives on the other side of the border. Following the historic summit of 2000 in Pyongyang, there have been several rounds of reunions, but the number of families affected remains low. For many of the first generation, divided families' time is running out, as many pass away before seeing their relatives again.
Population
Of the 1.7 million Americans of Korean descent that now reside in the United States (2010 Census), an estimated 100,000 Korean Americans are divided family members, who still have kin living in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K. or North Korea).
The vast majority of these divided family memberswere separated by the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950 (65-75%, while 25-35% were separated after liberation right before the Korean War, KDF 70). Millions uprooted their homes in a matter of days (as Seoul was taken in three days) and fled as refugees, to avoid the calamities of war, while others lost all communication with their relations, due to the iron curtain that dropped upon the northern half of the peninsula, leaving them in complete darkness regarding the whereabouts and well-being of their loved ones who happened to live in the North.
There were fathers and brothers who left their mothers behind, thinking they would be able to return in a few days, only to lose their relatives for a lifetime. Mothers who left their children behind, only to never be able to see them again. Children who became lost in the mad scramble of huge crowds of people flooding the paths to escape.
“By 28 June 2001, a mere 11 months after the first round of reunions in August 2000, 12,664 of the 116,460 original applicants for reunion had died. These figures clearly underline the pressing need for a solution to be found to this issue before the first generation of divided families finally disappear from the two Koreas’ societies, and the infringement of their fundamental human rights they have endured for so long becomes irreversible.”
“Clearly the most stressful psychological factor in their predicament is the uncertainty surrounding their loved ones’ fates. 83% had no idea of the whereabouts or status of their relatives. Although a small percentage of respondents (3%) said they had no desire to contact family members in the North, 88% said that they would like to contact their relatives.”
-Korea’s Divided Families: Fifty years of separationby James A. Foley, p. 63.