Hyung Chang Kim recounts the memories of his father, the late Gi Suk Kim, who was born in 1926 in Namcheon-ri, Eunyul-gun, Hwanghae Province which today is located in North Korea. Gi Suk Kim had been a teacher when the Korean War broke out, but as an act of resistance against the mandatory rules carried out by the People’s Army, he joined the Guwolsan Guerilla Unit (part of the KLO), an American-led guerilla warfare unit whose soldiers took commands from American military officials. He, alongside some of his colleagues, had come under suspicion by the North Korean government for their anti-communist activities, and were captured and imprisoned; it was through the saving grace of his uncle, a high-ranking official in the North Korean government, that Gi Suk Kim narrowly avoided execution. After the end of the Korean War, his unit remained in operation in Jirisan, where he was told North Korean operatives were in hiding, to suppress the operations of remnant forces. He eventually settled in Uijeonbu, Gyeonggi Province, where he had Hyung Chang Kim, the eldest of three sons and two daughters. Hyung Chang Kim recalls his father’s acute longing for his hometown, often taking his son to accompany him on visits to the Hwanghae Province Central Residents’ Association, or the Northern Five Provinces Committee, while he reminisced with other Koreans whose hometowns were in the North of their childhoods. Though he had been healthy for his entire life, his father passed suddenly at the age of 60, having spent much of his later life longing for his home, and regretting that reunification couldn’t happen sooner. Hyung Chang Kim, who is now older than his father was when he passed, has inherited the deep sorrow caused by ideological divisions between the North and South. He wishes to meet his family in Hwanghae one day, greet them on behalf of his father who spoke of them often, and hopes that they remain healthy so that he might visit as soon as he can.
