The Divided Families Foundation (formerly known as Saemsori or the Saemsori Project(샘소리 프로젝트))
is an American NGO that advocates for reunions for
Korean American Divided Families
A divided family can be a close family unit or members of the wider family who are separated from each other by borders of one or more countries and are therefore temporarily or permanently not able to live together. Main reason for the separatio ...
who are seeking to reunite with their relatives in
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
, whom they have not seen for 60 years since the
Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top: ...
in the 1950s.
Unlike previous first-generation divided families organizations, the Divided Families Foundation began in 2006 by focusing on lobbying the American government as well as raising public awareness, and in 2007, created the Congressional Commission on Divided Families, a caucus co-chaired by then Rep.
Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district ...
and Rep.
Jim Matheson
James David Matheson (born March 21, 1960) is an American politician who served as a United States Representative from Utah from 2001 to 2015. He represented Utah's 2nd district from 2001 to 2013 and its from 2013 to 2015 as a member of the Dem ...
.
References
Further reading
*Korea’s Divided Families: Fifty years of separation by James A. Foley: ,
*Faithful Endurance: An Ethnography of Korean Family Dispersal by Choong Soon Kim:
External links
Divided Families Foundation Website
{{authority control
Political advocacy groups in the United States
History of Korea