(note: these notes are given as a reference and are not a verbatim transcript from the press conference)

Speeches given on Feb 8, 1:30 pm, National Press Club
(in order)
1. Mr. Se Hum Hong, President, Korean American Coalition of the Midwest
2. Ms. Chahee Lee Stanfield, divided family member
3. Jimmy D. Lee, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
4. Alice J. Suh, Director, Saemsori Project

1. Remarks by Mr. Se-heum Hong, President of the Korean American Coalition of the Midwest

On behalf of the Korean American Coalition of the Midwest, I wish to express my deep gratitude to everyone who has come out today.

We are especially grateful to Congressman Mark Kirk, who has supported our community throughout his career. He has supported us since 2001, and was with us when the Korean American Coalition of the Midwest met with Secretary of State Colin Powell to tell him about our divided families. I am so grateful to him.

I would also like to thank the EugeneBell Foundation for working with the Korean-American community to give us a voice in North Korea. EugeneBell has been a great vehicle, first for humanitarian work in North Korea, and now I hope for divided families in America.

I am thankful for the blessings I have received in this country over the past (30, 40?) years. I have succeeded in this country, far beyond my own dreams, but I could not have done this alone. I know that there were always other Americans who cared that even I, an immigrant, would reach my full potential in this nation.

I am here today out of gratitude to our country and to the kindness Americans showed me when I was a new immigrant to this country. Because of their example, I want to speak for the vulnerable people in my own community, the Korean-American community in Chicago. I have shared their fear and their silence as immigrants, and I want to give us a voice.

I have been deeply moved by the stories of these divided family members. Because I am a leader in our community, these people often ask me for advice. Where should they take their stories? Will they get in trouble if they contact North Korea? Who can help them? Who will listen to them?

Many times, I don’t have good answers. I am not from a divided family, but these human stories have moved me. These stories will only be heard if Korean-Americans have a voice. I believe these people, like me, are part of America. Their children and grandchildren are Americans. I am so grateful to our second generation, to young people like Steve Kim and Alice Suh, because they care for the elderly. They care for vulnerable and quietly suffering immigrants.

Please think of these people and their pain. This not just a problem for North Korea, but it is also one for America.

Please help the Korean-American community give a voice to these grieving families.

Thank you.

2. Remarks by Ms. Cha-hee Lee Stanfield, Korean American Coalition of the Midwest and Branch Manager (Albany Park) of Chicago Public Library

There are two groups of separated families: The first were  separated right after World War II, the second were  separated during the Korean War.  I belong to the first group.

I was born in a little mountain village called Dapuchahu in Manchuria which was a Korean guerrilla  hide-out when Korea was under Japanese rule.   My father had 120 to 150 men cultivating  the agricultural land in Dapuchahu.   During the day, these men worked in the fields, but at night  they  were armed to defend the village against  bandits.  According to the annals of  area’s  history,  my father supplied weapons and food to the Korean guerrillas,  one of whom  was my uncle and one of whom was the guerilla leader  Kim, Il-sung, the late Prime Minister of North Korea.

When  World War II  was over, my family decided to return home to Taegu, Korea
from Manchuria where we had been during the conflict.  However, one of my older brothers and my father stayed  to wrap up  business in Manchuria.  They were to join us in a week or so in Taegu.  My mother,  my other siblings, and I left for Korea.  That was it. That was 60 years ago when my family was split forever.     Right after we left, the border between China and North Korea was closed, and My brother and my father  became trapped in Manchuria.     In 1950, the Chinese Government granted my father’s wish to go to North Korea, and they moved to North Korea.

In North Korea, my father became a marathon runner at the age of 54 and became a famous athlete, educator, and inspirational speaker.  He was known as a chulima halabuzi.  Chulima is a legendary or symbolic horse which runs long distances, and  a movie was made about my father’s life which is still shown on TV  once in a while in North Korea.

My family situation  is both  bitter and sweet.  While most  of the separated families don’t  know any details of what happened to their family members in North Korea, we at least, know that my father has passed away.

Many  of us  didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to each other.   During the Korean War, millions of people walked to the south.  In the stream of refugees, mothers carried babies on their backs and their belongings on their heads.  Children were supposed to hang on their mothers’ skirts or the older siblings were supposed to hang on to the younger ones’ hands. But in the chaos when they pulled, pushed, or ran,    or crossed the rivers,  they let each others hands go.  They let go each others and  became separated.

Some  family members became separated at a beach where there were sudden disruptions or chaotic situations in which  boats or vessels took off without the remaining family members.


Some of us couldn’t leave home because we had sick or elderly parents or other family members who couldn’t walk.  Thus, in many cases only  teenage boys and men left for south.  When I grew up, there were a lot of single men from North Korea around us.

Some families left  without their married sons and daughters. 

All of this happened  50 years ago, and since then, times have changed  and the places have changed.  Most of us have been living in the States for more than 30 years.  This is now  our home.  This is our country,  and  we are proud  to be Korean-Americans.   But no matter how much time has passed and no matter where we are, we live with stories  whose colors, sounds, pictures,  memories, and promises, don’t fade away.    They just don’t go away.  The pain is ever presented.  We have hundreds of thousands of stories that are too painful to bury in our hearts and take to our graves.  Millions of people including my mother who lived in Chicago and my father who lived in North Korea died heart  broken.

The people who left their spouses and children in North Korea are in their 80’s now, and within 10 years, this population will be gone.  The people who left their parents and siblings are in their late 60’s, 70’s, and 80’, and in 15 years, they will expire.  Time is zeroing in on us as it did on our parents.  Please help us. Help us in any way you can.  The time is running out!  Thank you very much.

3. Remarks by Jimmy D. Lee, Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders
Thank you.
(to be added)

4. Remarks by Alice J. Suh, Washington Office Director of the Eugene Bell Foundation, and Director of the Saemsori Project.

I’d like to thank the Korean American Coalition of the Midwest, and Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois for all they’ve done to support Saemsori and divided families. Maybe together we can finally give these families some real hope.

I’d also like to thank the congressmen who have sent or will be sending congratulatory letters for Saemsori. They come from all ends of the political spectrum and from all over our country. This includes Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Rep Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Rep Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Rep Ed Royce (D-CA), Rep Katherine Harris (R-FL), Rep Tom Davis (R-VA) and Rep Jim Leach (R-IA).

But most of all, I want to thank the Korean-American community, especially those of my parents and grandparents’ generations. I have been blessed by people like Ms. Chanhee Lee Stanfield, and Mr. Hong of Chicago and Elder James Lim of CA. These older folks have so much energy. They also have so much faith in this country. You’ll meet very few people who love America more than a Korean-American over the age of 60.

Let me tell you why Saemsori was founded. The name comes from two Korean words that together mean the voice of a stream—a fresh voice. People always talk about what America should do with North Korea. But very few of us have ever listened to the people who have the most at stake—to the thousands, or maybe hundreds of thousands, of Korean-Americans who still have family there. For these people, North Korea is about more than just nuclear weapons or a communist regime. North Korea is as real as the face of a lost daughter, a childhood home, or a father’s grave.

Saemsori was founded to give voice to these human concerns. Our mission is to be a constructive voice for family reunifications and positive people-to-people contacts between the US and North Korea.

I believe these human concerns matter to Americans. This is why my parents and grandparents came to this country 30 and 40 years ago. Not just because they wanted to make a lot of money or to be protected by the biggest army, but because in this country, we honestly believe that our people are important. We believe that the weak, the elderly, the foreigner—all are human beings who were created equal and have human stories and human faces. This doesn’t happen much where my parents and grandparents come from, and I know they are grateful for this. In America, even the weakest are entitled to a voice.

The Korean-American community has also been one of the most generous and consistent donors of humanitarian aid to North Korea. Other donors have pulled out, but Korean-Americans have continued to give quietly through churches, missionary groups and private organizations. The Korean-American response to appeals by the UN World Food Program was one of the largest made by a single ethnic community in the WFP’s history.

I’m amazed at this generosity—most are not rich people. They’re first generation immigrants and their generosity is what I believe represents America. The Korean-American community gets very little recognition for this, and instead lives quietly with a lot of unnecessary fear. They are scared that their involvement in North Korea, even for a legitimate humanitarian reason, will draw suspicion. Part of it is that they are immigrants and they don’t know what can get them in trouble. They want to find their families. But where do they begin? How does a regular citizen, how does Grandma, contact North Korea in a legitimate, transparent way?

Saemsori has started several projects to take the first steps. We are focusing on doing the research, and we hope this will lead to practical and lasting solutions for our divided families.

We will start with three projects:
1.    A nationwide survey of Korean-American communities, so that we have an accurate estimate of the number of Americans with family ties to North Korea. There has never been a reliable study, though estimates range from 70,000 to 500,000.
2.    A centralized database to collect specific humanitarian cases of divided families. This will be kept confidential, and only used as a reference for our government. If the government ever decides to get serious about reuniting families, we will have these cases ready to go.
3.    An archive of letters, photographs and oral histories collected from divided family members. These people are in their 70s and 80s; they don’t have much time. We need to preserve their stories now.

That’s all. I hope Saemsori will be a gentle reminder to our country of what we value. The human faces, the human stories of these vulnerable, elderly Americans. These are our neighbors and our friends.