The last generation of Koreans who remember a unified peninsula are growing old in South Korea, still unable to return to their hometowns in the North more than 70 years after the Korean War's 1953 armistice sealed the border.
00:00Autumn in South Korea and families gather along the northern border to make offerings to ancestors
00:07whose graves they haven't visited for nearly free generations and, given the current state of affairs,
00:13don't expect to see again in their lifetime.
00:15If you cross straight over, that's my father's hometown. That's where my grandparents are.
00:20Ri Jae-hong tosses a cup of wine towards his father's hometown of Yeombek.
00:24It's now part of North Korea, just two kilometers away, but it might as well be on the moon.
00:30Jae-hong's father fled south during the Korean War.
00:33Soon after, a tense armistice sealed the border in 1953.
00:38Situated at the mouth of the Han River, Gyorang Island welcomed thousands of refugees, like Minook-sun, at the war's end.
00:46On they trudge, North Koreans choosing to become homeless wanderers rather than slaves to a regime
00:51which threatens to engulf the entire Asiatic world.
00:54Every form of transport becomes an evacuation express to a southern destination.
00:59Each wary mile south brings its obstacles...
01:01More than 1.5 million people fled to the south during the war.
01:05Few knew they'd never be able to return.
01:08My parents' graves are only about six kilometers away.
01:12Six kilometers. That's barely ten minutes by car.
01:15Can there be a sadness deeper than this?
01:17For decades, they waited for reunification between North and South Korea, or at least détente, anything to see their families.
01:25Today, 72 years later, telescopes on the islands north are the only way they can glimpse their old hometowns.
01:33We are a people with broken hearts. Even though we live in abundance today, my parents, my brothers and sisters all remained in North Korea.
01:41The North calls the South a hostile state, and tensions between the two sides are worse than they've been in decades.
01:48Pyongyang recently shut down institutions dedicated to reunification, and tore down transport links built in the 2000s when things were a little more hopeful.
01:57With little say in their fate, and aging fast, refugees sing songs that remind them of...
02:02All I long for are my mother and father. I left my hometown at 17, fleeing the war, and I haven't seen them since.
02:15When I see others with their parents, I can't help but envy them, and tears are all that come.
02:21When birds leave their nests under a roof, they always find their way back. That's called the homing instinct. And we humans also have this need to return home.
02:35Like his wife, Kim still dreams of home. But for him, that longing has never faded into peace.
02:41My wife can sleep peacefully under thick blankets and think, this is my resting place. But not me.
02:49Every day, I fight inside, as if I were still at war.
02:54After years of safety and abundance in the South, the last generation to remember a unified Korea fades.
03:01Singing the old songs, before resting in graves just kilometers away from their ancestors, yet impossibly far from home.
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