[Opinion] Homecoming after 30 Years

World-renowned Korean composer Yun I-sang was from Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang Province. He grew up watching fishing boats and listening to the sound of nature on a seaside village and decided to become a composer. While he lived abroad, however, he was forced to come home and imprisoned by intelligence officers under suspicion that he was involved in an espionage operation in East Berlin. After serving his term, he went back to Germany and kept a close relationship with North Koreans. And he died in Germany, not seeing the turquoise sea in Tongyeong. Some of South Korean composers tried to bring him back home several times, but failed repeatedly. And Jung Jong-shik, former president of Yonhap News Agency, was one of reporters who rushed to visit Yun whenever the Yun`s homecoming was tapped.

When he first visited Yun, he took a box of dried anchovies caught in Tongyeong, which was arranged by his elder sister. Jung`s sister was, in fact, one of Yun`s students while he was working as a music teacher at Tongyeong Girls` High School. When Jung handed the box to him, saying `they are from Tongyeong sea,` Yun choked up and could not say a word. Seeing the anchovies, Yun must have thought of his home back in Tongyeong. In 1994, Yun was almost allowed to come back. But his homecoming never came. The government asked him to write a statement of regret and he refused. And the following year, Yun passed away.

Tongyeong is a beautiful seaside city known as `Sydney of Korea.` People can see fish swimming around through the turquoise sea that harbors many beautiful islands. And we now hear a sad story about a fisherman in Tongyeong, who was kidnapped by North Koreans in 1973 and recently returned home after 30 years. The three decades of time has not changed the turquoise sea, but his family and hometown is not the same as they were 30 years ago. His only daughter, who was a 100 day-old infant at the time of kidnapping, is now a mother of two children herself. The grown-up daughter, however, shed tears, seeing the face of his old father. But he could not find his wife among the family members welcoming his homecoming. 30 years was too long time for her to wait her husband to come back. She was remarried and died of an illness.

There are millions of separate family members living apart in South and North Korea. And the number of people who die not seeing their loved ones in the North is increasing as the peninsular marks the 50th year anniversary of armistice. British writer Thomas Hardy wrote a book titled `Homecoming,` and homecoming has been one of the most repeatedly used themes for books, movies and songs. Every one of separate family has a sad story that is well enough to be adopted for a movie or a book. Yet, North Koreans allow family unions from time to time as if they made a big concession. It is called family reunion, but the time they can be together is too short, making the family members even sadder. And we only hope that roads between the two Koreas will soon wide open, setting a stage for many more homecomings.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer, hthwang@donga.com