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Homes Apart: Korea

Narrator: To the Korean people, family is life.

Family is your identity, your spirit, your soul.

To be torn from your parents is to lose your past and the

ancestors who brought you into existance.

To be taken away from brothers and sisters is to cut off a

part of yourself.

In such an incomplete state, you can only drift through

the world not completely whole.

Like an amputee, you constantly feel the ghostly presence

of the missing part.

I'm an American of Korean background.

And I've always felt that so much of Korean life is confusion and craziness.

But all this schizophrenia can be traced to one open scar across the nation's soul,

the original source of insanity.

Girl: Korea had a war.

Well, we really don't know. And it was... it's complicated.

And it was like split up and now there's like a gate or a wall

and now there's a South and a North Korea.

I read in a book, it's not really a gate, and it's not really a wall,

or it's not like anything there really.

It's just like soldiers and maybe posts, you know, where people can sit inside

and then there are soldiers pacing outside, I guess. I'm not really sure.

DMZ Tour Soldier: The microphone cord you see running down

the center of this table represents the military demarcation line inside the room

and further continues outside by the 17-inch wide slab of concrete

connecting this buildings.

So at this time, everybody to my left is in communist North Korea

and everyone to my right is in the Republic.

If you would like to make a safe crossing into North Korea,

you should make your crossing inside this building

please make your crossing at that end of the table and do not step

in front of or behind the security guard.

At this time, feel free to make your crossing in and out of North Korea

and take any photographs you may wish.

Narrator: The Demilitarized Zone, 2 miles wide, has

cut Korea right in half. There is no communication between sides,

no letters, not even telephone calls. Koreans from the South who try to

visit the North face life in prison.

Only those who are citizens of other countries can visit both Koreas.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: We've lived with that reality of division

now for the last 40 years. But before that, it was all one Korea.

Tragic division of Korea not only in terms of two different camps between North

and South Korea but the casualties and the consequences of that division for the

millions of family members divided into North and South Korea,

that is the most serious human tragedy that we have to face now.

Kaesong Grandmother: We became separated during the war.

We wanted to escape the bombing, and we thought they would use the atom bomb.

I thought my sons would return soon, but it has been over 30 years.

Narrator: I was born in Communist China.

I didn't have a father. He got stuck during the war in South Korea.

So we were completely cut off from him. I remember my mother praying at night

and telling me, "Your father is watching the same starts."

In China, I heard North Korea was great, the South was horrible.

Then, in 1962, my family was allowed to reunite with my father in South Korea.

All of a sudden, the South was wonderful, the North was terrible.

It was typical of Korea's contradictions, not to mention for a kid, pretty confusing.

Narrator: When I came to America,

I hoped to leave behind all my unanswered questions.

But they continued to bother me, a reminder of my divided past.

Years later, we found a Korean American who was seeking his sister

in the north, and asked to film their family reunion.

This is how we met Mr. Pak.

Mr. Pak: When I was 11 years old,

I was ill quite a while and I was in bed all the time.

Then my sister comes home from school, she comes to my room

and I ask her to sing for me.

And everytime I ask her, she sang for me.

That was the vivid memory I have of my sister. She was pretty.

She took care of us, I was only 11 or 12, and had 2 younger sisters.

She came home one afternoon and she packed a few things and left.

That was the last time I seen her. I had no idea what was happening,

where she was going to go.

Narrator: I think of the Korean people as very bitter.

For thousands of years, Korea was one rich culture.

Narrator: Then Japan invaded and colonized Korea and everything changed.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: Japanese occupation for the Korean people

was a very tragic history. I remember, I was born 1931 and Korea

became liberated in 1945 at the end of WWII.

So I lived under Japanese occupation for 13-14 years.

Narrator: The Japanese tortured Koreans,

thousands starved to death, and whole villages were carted off

to Japan or Manchuria as slave labor. We were not allowed to speak our language,

and even had to change our last names to Japanese.

Narrator: Koreans resisted in exile, underground and in Guerilla armies.

My father was very active in the movement to overthrow Japanese colonization.

When I was growing up, he told me a lot of stories about

the struggle, but I just tuned out.

Old war stories. These people are dead, big deal.

Very typical attitude of people who've never seen war themselves.

But Korea was liberated only when Japan was defeated in WWII.

The occupation had dragged on for 36 years.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: That was the time of jubilation

and time of joy.

Finally after half century of annexation and occupation by Japanese,

Korea became liberated and independent.

It was just a joyful occasion for all the families in Korea.

We thought we now became free people at last.

Narrator: But freedom lasted less than one month.

Soviet troops came into Korean from the North,

and American troops came into the South.

The U.S. proposed dividing Korea at the 38th parallel,

and the Soviets agreed.

Koreans were never consulted. In fact, it was one of the first acts

of the Cold War.

Narrator: Koreans tried to fight this new invasion to no avail.

The U.S. occupied the south for three years and brought to power Syngman Rhee,

Princeton graduate and anti-communist, who became the first president of

South Korea.

In the North, Kim Il Sung, a communist and anti-Japanese war hero,

was backed by the Soviets and became president of North Korea.

Rev Syngman Rhee: There were two

different countries and two different governments

and two different political ideologies and that continued

and it culminated into the tragic Korean War in 1950.

Narrator: The Korean War was a disaster,

three years long, nothing won, everything lost.

Any civil war, with families turned against one another,

causes national anguish.

But America was determined to fight communism and with the U.N.

turned a local struggle into a bloody international war.

President Truman and General MacArthur even threatened to use the atomic bomb,

and Koreans fled their homes in fear. The death toll was massive,

57.000 American and U.N. soldier, I million Chinese and 3 million Koreans.

To this day, 10 million families remain separated by the 38th parallel.

Kaesong Orphan: I am sure you would understand

the sorrow of growing up without parents if you

had experienced it. Ever since we were separated,

I've lived with this longing for my parents.

Especially after the war, when everything was destroyed,

when there was nothing to eat, nothing to wear,

no house to live in; in the midst of this difficulty,

there was an unspeakable longing for my parents.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: During the Korean War,

there was a great deal of fear about the bombing.

Therefore, when we had a chance to leave North Korea, my younger brother and I -

I was 19 then and my younger brother was 17 - we left home.

We left behind my mother, and my four sisters,

who were age 12, 10, 8 and 4 months at the time.

It was a cold winter day in December 1950, so only young people,

male mostly, were able to flee and leave their home.

We thought it would only be very temporary absence from our home,

we never thought it would last for 40 years like this.

General Menetrey: I'd like to right here at the beginning,

say thank you to the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and those

of our U.N. Command comrades who are before you.

It is a work that helps the nation of some good friends stay free

and thus protects our freedom and the freedom of others.

It is good to be with you today on this Fourth of July

in the Republic of Korea.

Rear Admiral Gene Larocque: Korea is the most heavily armed area

in the world today.

There are far too many troops in North Korea and South Korea.

North Korea has about 700.00 troops under arms according to most

reliable intelligence estimates,

South Korea has about 600.000.

U.S. has some 45.000 highly trained powerful military forces in South Korea,

including aircraft and tanks.

In addition, the U.S. has in South Korea, a rather sizable number of nuclear weapons.

interviewer: Do you like Korea?

Soldier: Sure, I'm having a great time.

Interviewer: Why?

Soldier: It's different.

Interviewer: Explain that.

Soldier: Different people.

I've met a lot of pretty good people I work with.

A lot of Korean soldiers I've worked with are pretty good to work with.

Just a kind of interesting to be in a different part of the world.

To see a little bit of different culture.

Question: Aren't you scared being right here?

Soldier: No. Maybe a little nervous, but not scared.

Question: Why?

Soldier: Just, that's the way it is.

Question: You don't think there's going to be

a threat of a war from the North?

Soldier: There's always a threat.

Mr. Pak: When I was growing up in South Korea,

anti-communism was the biggest thing, We were told that North Koreans are

starving and that North Korean government oppressed the people there quite a bit.

Interviewer: Why are you afraid for your husband go to North Korea?

Mrs. Pak: I'm afraid that he won't be able to return.

Interviewer: Why? Because of the communists?

Mrs. Pak: Yes, the communists...

I read newspapers about people kidnapped by communists.

That's what I'm afraid of.

Narrator: Mr. Pak was pretty worried about going

to North Korea to visit his sister. He was called several times

by the South Korean consulate, telling him this wasn't such a good idea,

and some of his friends began to avoid him.

We had been trying for two years to get into North Korea,

when we suddenly received an invitation.

We might never get another chance, so we decided to go right away,

and return later with Mr. Pak if he overcame his fears.

Narrator: Since the U.S. has no relations

with the North, we could only travel there via a third country, China.

When I was descending into the capital city of Pyongyang,

I was almost afraid of what I might discover.

All my adult life, I'd heard such terrible things about North Korea.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: The first time I went back, after I

left home in 1950, was 1978, 28 years later.

Pyongyang was a beautiful city, rebuilt.

Not a single building, the old buildings which used to stand before the Korean War,

is there at all.

It's all newly built.

The place I went where our house used to stand,

and I stood before the place and saw a new apartment building

was standing there, our old house wasn't standing there any longer,

but to me it was my home, it was where my house was standing.

Narrator: When we first arrived, we had a week

of political education - our hosts stuck close by,

telling people to smile for the camera.

North Korea is constantly attacked in the western press.

That's why they felt our film should show the other side.

So we first had to go on a guided tour, where everything was a little too perfect.

North Korea is a socialist country, so the government owns and runs

almost everything. Everything is clean and uncrowded - in fact there's hardly

any cars. People's homes are modest, and seem pretty equal,

but public facilities are enormous, gigantic --

like libraries with 60 foot ceilings and subways with chandaliers.

And while it receives aid from the Soviet Union and China,

the national philosophy has always been "juche", self-reliance.

Grandmother: In the past we didn't have anything

like this. But thanks to the Great Leader and the Dear Leader, we grandmothers

can enjoy ourselves.

How can you have such happiness?

We dance and sign everyday.

When we farmed, we almost starved to death.

We had nothing to eat but rice porridge.

I've farmed in Botong River town all my life.

Now I'm retired, but the government still gives me money.

This is social welfare!

People over 56 years old don't have to work.

But the Great Leader really takes care of us.

We get 20 won a month even though we just play all day.

I'm 74 years old. I'm so grateful to the Great Leader,

let's sign the Great Leader song again!

Narrator: The "Great Leader" is Kim Il Sung.

Everyone wears his pin, the shape and color depends on where you work.

He has remained the president since 1948. You see pictures, sculptures, posters of him

everywhere, with his son and heir, Kim Jong Il.

Everything is organized by groups, your work group, your school group.

Among the largest of group activities are the mass games

at the Kim Il Sung stadium,

a combination political rally and superbowl half-time event.

The North celebrates its "Korean identity" but in fact, their way of life has often

been Soviet-inspired.

They said attendance was not required, but I wonder, if the people don't

participate, what happens to them?

Narrator: Finally, I got pissed off filming

this guided tour. Especially one official trying to point our camera for us.

I screamed at him - and after that, we began to meet some ordinary people.

Woman: When did you get here?

Man: How was the delivery?

Woman: They gave me a shot to make it easier.

Man: Oh good. Let me see the baby.

Is it a boy or a girl?

Woman: A boy

Man: A boy. What a happy occasion.

Lift him up a little so I can see him better.

Narrator: Like everywhere else, people work, get salaries and go shopping.

But here, housing, healthcare, and education are all free.

Interviewer: Do you always shop with your mother?

Daughters: Sometimes I come by myselft

or for errands I come to shop myself.

Interviewer: Where do you get money?

Daughter: From home and I get paid.

Interviewer: How much is your rent?

Mother: The rent is very low...

Daughter: We don't pay for rent.

Mother: We just pay for utilities,

but it's very low. We have four rooms and pay 6 won and - how much?

6.70 won. We don't really pay rent.

Interviewer: Do you pay taxes?

Daughter and Mother: No! There's no taxes!

Narrator: The material quality of life

is pretty good here - especially for old people and children.

And there's a 100% literacy rate.

But it's clear that growth is hampered by the lack of relation with the U.S.

and other western countries.

The people do talk about Kim Il Sung an awful lot,

but I really believed them to be sincere.

North Korean went directly from feudalism to socialism,

and the peasantry came to think of Kim Il Sung like their village

or clan leader: righteous as a god, stronger than a bull.

It's not so different from the way Mao used to be idolized in China.

Old people, who have lived through the occupation and the war,

say he really rebuilt their country from the ashes.

We caught glimpses of the real people here - but for the most part, could only try to

read meaning into the surfaces we were shown.

I felt trapped by fear and defensiveness - their fears and my fears.

An underneath, there was always a sense of sadness about the national division.

Mrs Choe: There are nights I can't sleep, thinking about my brother.

My parents were in Kyungsung.

They have now passed away.

They waited a long time for their son.

But they passed away without ever seeing him again.

Then after 34 years, with the help of the Party,

I was able to meet my brother.

I thought of our childhood and wondered,

would I recognize a man in his fifties? would he have changed a lot?

I took out some old pictures and cried over them before he arrived.

But at the airport, my brother did not recognize me.

That was a painful moment, not to recognize one's own brother.

Narrator: When we arrived in South Korea,

we first went to see my uncle.

Mr. Hong: I've lived in Seoul for about 30 years.

I came down as a refugee in the Jan 4th retreat

from the Chinese, during the Korean War.

I came alone.

We never thought it would be this long,

we were just fleeing momentarily.

Narrator: Uncle Hong hoped we would bring news of

his family, but we didn't have a chance to meet them.

After going to the North, we thought it would be relatively

easy to film in the South. But their officials were angry

and demanded we screen all our footage for them.

So the South is very insecure about its image too.

When I lived in South Korea as a kid, it was one of the poorest countries

in the world. Now, I couldn't recognize it.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: The Korean War was one of the severest wars;

destruction in both South Korea and North Korea was massive.

South Korea has rebuilt its own economy, its own buildings,

it was such a difference between the time I had left, 1956, and 1972.

And today it's even more striking difference between the time of war and soon

after war and what it has become in South Korea today.

With money and aid from the U.S. and Japan, the economy boomed.

Now, nearly everything is made for export- Hyundai cars, Samsung electronics,

South Korea seems to be a success story.

But at the same time, there are severe problems:

$29 billion in foreign debt, an economy almost completely dependent on export,

and great numbers of people who cannot make ends meet.

Inchon Worker: I know that our country has developed economically.

But it was a development that didn't benefit everyone,

but one that benefitted only a few people.

It didn't help the factory workers at the bottom,

who worked day and night for this development that so impresses foreigners.

nothing has changed for us factory workers

The working condition haven't improved,

Nothing has improved.

Community Leader: The government doesn't provide money for this.

Each community has to fundraise for a senior citizen's center.

We have to raise the money ourselves, and grandmothers don't like to go far.

That's why we set up this center. Next door is a bus for grandfathers.

We should really get a building for them, but it costs too much.

Narrator: Like the North, people here really

want to reunify the country. But until a few years ago,

to talk about it was asking to ge arrested as a spy or communist.

(Anti-communist Demonstrator) Root out pro-communists! Root them out!

The government wanted us to film this anti-communist pep rally.

Unfortunately for them, we had arrived smack in the middle

of the largest anti-government demonstrations in history.

Demonstration: Down with dictatorship! Direct elections!

We witnessed an explosion of national frustration. Besides factory workers

and students, we say lawyers, shopkeepers, doctors, all demonstrating

for democracy, human rights and reunification of the country.

South Korea is called a democracy, but almost all its five presidents

have been military dictators. The governments justify their

repression by citing the threat from the North.

The national division perpetuates what is now nearly a century

of martial rule.

Demonstrator: Yankee go home!

Interviewer: Why "Yankee go home"?

Demonstrator: I'll tell you what "Yankee go home!" means.

"Yankee go home" was because ever since Park Jung Hee was in power,

the Americans have controlled our Korean military

Without U.S. support, a military dictatorship couldn't

be established nor maintained. So to regain our freedom,

we are asking American to regain their senses.

U.S. Soldier: What do you think of Koreans who say

"Yankee go home"?

I don't think they've been exposed to American soldiers.

If they got to know Americans, and Americans would get out more

and get to know Koreans, I don't think they would have that

problem of saying "Yankee go home".

Interviewer: Then why do they say it?

Soldier: I think they're related to their thinking

of us being part of the problem, which I don't think they understand.

We are not part of the problem, we're just here to help defend the country

to make sure the North does not invade.

Narrator: But there's some 40.000 American GI's

stationed here, taking up some of the best land in the country.

A constant reminder to the Korean that their country is still not their own.

Sometimes you feel that South Korea is one big U.S. military base.

Rear Admiral Gene Larocque: There's certainly a danger every day,

every minute of a conflict breaking out by virtues of the fact that our

forces and the North Korean forces are literally facing each other every day.

We've had incidents in the past, we'll have them in the future,

which could easily lead to a resumption of hostilities there.

Although both North Korea and South Korea do not wan to have another war,

the very proximity of the forces at the DMZ

U.S, South Korea on one side, North Korea on the other,

make a war a real possibility.

U.S. Soldier: This is the tree that was the focal point

of the 1976 axe murder incident, where we had two officers that die

during the tree-trimming incident that the North Koreans attacked us from.

Three days after the axe murder incident, we did cut the tree down.

This, what we consider the most expensive tree-cutting operation in history,

was Operation Paul Bunyan.

We had one JSA platoon, augmented by some unarmed engineers,

about 50 martial arts experts from the Republic of Korea's Special Forces.

They were stationed in and around the Joint Security Area.

They were further augmented by attack helicopters, fighters and B-52 bombers

flying south of the Demilitarized Zone.

All ROK and U.S. forces within the Republic went on full alert

and the aircraft carrier Midway was stationed off the coast with its

full complement of fighters.

Needless to say, the North Koreans made no attempt to interfere with our

tree cutting operation that day.

Kim Il Sung later expressed regret over the whole incident.

U.S. Soldier: What are we doing?

We are just swimming in the old mighty Panmunjom security guard swimming pool.

Interviewer: What kind of life is it here?

Soldier: Life here? Life here's wonderful.

Question: No, what kind? Describe it, what do you do?

Soldier: Well, what do we do?

We guard the DMZ from the communist menace!

K. Spence Richardson, U.S Dept of State: I don't think there's any contradiction

in having American troops in South Korea and our desire for reunification.

The American troops are in Korea to deter aggression from the North,

and I think the precipitous withdrawal of American forces would be a very

dangerous thing for both Koreas, because it could cause an unstab le

situation on the peninsula.

At the same time, I reiterate my statement that we fully spport

the unification of Korea on terms acceptable to the peoples

of North and South Korea.

Narrator: Things are changing,

but a solution still seems far away,

even as the Berlin Wall falls and change overwhelms the rest of the world.

The governments of both Koreas keep starting and stopping

negotiations, while their people struggles for reunification.

In 1990, they announced a brief opening of the border and thousands travelled

in hopes of seeing family members even for a day.

But the whole thing was cancelled. And now a new generation

is growing up with no memory of a unified Korea.

South Korean Classroom Girl: The ideology they are taught is different

from our free system.

We study all kinds of things in a free environment.

But students in the North can only study one thing under the dictatorship

of Kim Il Sung.

They are not able to study in a free environment like us,

but are forced to prepare for an attack against the South.

Students our own age have to carry around guns preparing for war.

This is not only scary but tragic.

North Korean Teacher: I'm going to ask you what kind of

society is South Korea. Stand up when you answer.

Student: It's a society where the U.S.

and the ruling class oppress and exploit the masses. It's a rotten society.

Student 2: It's a society where the U.S.

maneuvers to suppress our people's struggle and keep Korea divided.

Narrator: In the current international climate, ironies become even more absurd.

The Cold War is over.

Korea remains a museum piece of East-West tensions,

all the unhappiness and cruelty of the Cold War left in one small nation.

Narrator: Mr. Pak received his invitation to to go to North Korea,

and finally put aside his doubts.

Mr. Pack: I haven't seen my sister for a long time.

I haven't seen her for 37 years.

Interviewer: How come?

Mr. Pak: Well, because my sister left and went to North Korea during

the Korean War. And since then we haven't seen each other.

Interviewer: Why haven't you see each other?

Mr. Pak: Well, North Korean and South Korea doesn't have

diplomatic relationships.

I mean, I questioned whether I should really go or what I should...

I couldn't decide.

Then after I talked to a few people, they said it's okay.

Mr. Pak VO: Well, I worried about two things.

The first is can I go there and come back safely.

The second thing was if I visit there, would I be able to visit South Korea.

Meeting my sister put away all those worries.

If I cannot visit South Korean, then I give up.

North Korea is my country too.

We speak same language, we share same cultural background,

and my sister is living there.

So whether it's a communist country or not, it's my country.

Narrator: Very soon after, we were told to stop filming.

Our North Korean hosts just decided we had shot enough.

So like Korea itself, our story was left incomplete.

Mr. Pak: It's just 3 or 4 hours drive from Pyongyang to Seoul,

but still it's far, far away.

I thought that there is something that we gotta do about it...

Twin girls: We want to reunify the country.

Because it would be a lot better for the country, because they're,

South Korea and North Korea are enemies now, and they' don't...

If they were reunified and they liked each other other again,

there wouldn't be as many wars between them.

They wouldn't fight as much.

And one of the ways we can help, like we gave a report when we came back,

and I think a lot of people learned things in our school and you know,

if we tell people about it, I don't think they would feel so scared

of this problem that's going on.

Rev. Syngman Rhee: My personal hope is that one of the separated families,

my brother, who is in South Korea will be able to see my sisters

in North Korea.

I am able to go to North Korea to see my sisters, and I am able to go to

South Korea and see my brother, and I have become the way of

communication and relaying the messages.

But some day, I hope my brother and my sisters will be able to see

each other again after 40 years of separation.

Mr. Hong: My greatest regret is that we couldn't come south together.

I wonder if my parents are even alive now.

I wasn't there to take care of them.

So I feel very guilty that I could not be a good son to them,

that I wasn't able to take care of them.

I can only hope that they are living and in good health,

and that someday we will be reunited.

I hope they will stay well until that day.

Narrator: My father and grandfather, they both passed away without seeing

a unified Korea. My mother, she's getting old too.

And I'd like to start healing the wounds of my own heart.

We are all hoping for the missing part of ourselves to be one day returned.

Interviewer: Is there anything you want to say to your oldest son in San Francisco?

We'll relay the message.

Grandmother: Since I am living to this ripe old age, don't worry about me.

Take good care of your children and raise them well.

And if you can't come, at least write me a letter. Tell him that.

(music)