THIS MONTH IN KOREAN HISTORY - NOV. 2024

By Eun Byoul Oh

In November, we highlight the airing of Finding Dispersed Families. Finding Dispersed Families was a marathon, live broadcast on KBS 1TV that lasted from June 30, to November 14, 1983. The broadcast allowed dispersed families to find each other and reunite after decades of separation due to the Korean War. As we covered in our June volume, the Korean War, which lasted from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, resulted in 128,532 families (based on March 32, 2011 census) being separated.

KCCNYC shared the NPR article on the people who lost homes due to displacement during the Korean War. Because of this, there were many people who were not able to return home after the war due to the division of the North and the South at the 38th parallel. However, there were families within South Korea who were not able to verify each other’s whereabouts. In addition, the broadcast was able to reunite the international Korean adoptees. 

The live broadcast was able to reunite a total of 10,189 people during the broadcast. The live broadcast went on for 138 days, which is 453 hours and 45 minutes. It holds the record for the longest live broadcast in the world as one program. The recordings of the broadcast became part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme in 2015. The movie Ode to My Father <국제시장> portrayed the live broadcast and the separated families’ reunification. 

The live broadcast is currently accessible on YouTube for everyone to remember and reminisce about the sorrow of the separated families.