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Episode details

World Service,30 Nov 2021,23 mins

Why my parents sent my brothers to live in North Korea

The Outlook Podcast Archive

Available for over a year

Filmmaker Yonghi Yang grew up in Japan in the 1960s, as part of Osaka's large ethnic Korean community. Facing anti-Korean prejudice in Japan, and inspired by the North Korean regime’s promise of a socialist paradise, her parents made the momentous decision to send their three teenage sons to live in the North Korean capital Pyongyang in the early 1970s, as a sort of ‘birthday gift’ to North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung. Yonghi remained behind with her parents and has spent a lifetime trying to make sense of their decision and its consequences. Yonghi has made films about her experience, the latest is called Soup and Ideology. Get in touch: [email protected] Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Laura Thomas (Photo: The Arch of Reunification in Pyongyang, North Korea. Credit: Pablo Bonfiglio via Getty Images)

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