WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) have introduced a joint resolution to the Committee on Foreign Relations urging the U.S. Department of State to prioritize the facilitation of reunions between Korean Americans who were divided from their relatives during the Korean War. Following the division of the Korean Peninsula into South Korea and North Korea, more than 10,000,000 Koreans were separated from their family members, many of whom now live in the United States.

“It’s a tragedy that so many Korean Americans have been separated from their families for so long. Some have not seen or communicated with their relatives in North Korea in more than six decades,” said Sen. Warner. “We shouldn’t let a lack of diplomatic relations to get in the way of opportunities that would allow Korean American families to reunite with their loved ones.”

Since the signing of the Korean War armistice agreement on July 27, 1953, there has been little to no contact between Korean Americans and their family members who remain in North Korea. North and South Korea first agreed to reunions in 1985; since then, 19 face-to-face reunions have been held, as well as 7 video-link reunions, giving approximately 22,000 Koreans the opportunity to briefly reunite with their relatives.

Kirk and Warner’s resolution encourages North Korea to permit reunions between Korean Americans and their North Korean relatives, urges the government of South Korea to include U.S. citizens in future family reunions planned with North Korea, and calls on the State Department to further prioritize efforts to reunite Korean Americans with their separated family members.

It also acknowledges the efforts of the American Red Cross to open channels of communication between Korean Americans and their family members who remain in North Korea, and praises humanitarian efforts to reunite all individuals of Korean descent with their relatives and engender a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Previously, Sen. Warner has worked to provide visas to Koreans with specialized skills that are lacking in the U.S. labor market and to strengthen bilateral ties between the United States and Korea.