An estimated 100,000 Korean Americans are separated from loved ones in North Korea with dwindling hope of ever seeing them, reports Reuters.
Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Senator Charles Rangel (D-NY) this week urged Secretary of State John Kerry to do everything in his power to find a way to allow these families to visit each other.
“Every time the North Koreans open the door a little bit, we want to make sure that Secretary Kerry never forgets the families that are torn apart and to have them on the agenda,” Rangel, who is a Korean War veteran, said.
Since the Korean War broke out in 1950, these families have been torn apart by political strife. 65 years later, time is against them.
“Even the people who are at nursing homes, they still want to see their sisters or their brothers,” said Chahee Stanfield, the Korean American executive director of the National Coalition on the Divided Families.
You can read some of the heartbreaking personal stories told by these families in Reuters.
