An estimated 100,000 children were orphaned during the Korean War (1950-1953). Families in North America and Western Europe adopted many of the South Korean orphans. That is well documented. But much less known is the fate of North Korean children who lost their parents amid the bloody conflict. It’s been said that thousands of them were sent to Eastern Europe to receive “foster education.”

“Kim Il Sung’s Children,” a 2020 indie documentary film, traces the North Korean war orphans who were shipped to five countries then belonging to the socialist Eastern Bloc. It is replete with reminiscing by their teachers and classmates, fondly remembering and missing them, often in voices choked with emotion. Their recollections are interwoven with archival material, old film footage, photographs and letters.

From Hungary to the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, the film tracks memories about the North Korean children, which remain in small, secluded villages. The children began arriving as early as in 1951, while the war was at its height. They traveled via China, in groups of hundreds aboard the Trans-Siberian trains. After arriving at their destinations, the children regained their health under devoted care and quickly adapted to their new environments.

The full-length documentary is the outcome of a 16-year personal endeavor by its director-cinematographer-editor-narrator, Kim Deog-young. The former KBS producer made more than 50 trips to the countries concerned and spent over 200 million won ($179,364) in production costs.

“It all began with a love story,” Kim says. In 2004, he happened to hear about a Romanian woman who was searching for news about her North Korean husband more than 40 years after they were separated in Pyongyang. It turned out that the couple was involved in the education of North Korean war orphans in Romania.

Like most South Koreans, Kim had never heard about North Korean war orphans. He felt compelled to learn more. Thus, he flew to Romania and started to search for old records and untapped memories. The result was “Mircioiu: My Husband Is Cho Jung-ho,” a special feature aired on KBS TV in June 2004, marking the Korean War anniversary.

As the title suggests, the 48-minute documentary focused on the heart-breaking story of the couple. In 1952, Georgeta Mircioiu, an 18-year-old graduate of a teaching school, was assigned to teach fine arts at a school for North Korean children in Siret, about 100 kilometers from Bucharest. There she met the school’s supervisor, Cho Jung-ho, 26. They fell in love and were married in 1957, after obtaining permission from their respective governments.

In 1957, the North Korean regime suddenly decided to recall all of the children from Eastern Europe. In September 1959, Mircioiu arrived in Pyongyang with her husband and their two-year-old daughter. Her husband was soon purged and Mircioiu was left alone with their daughter to face a dire situation. Under its newly-introduced “juche” (self-reliance) policy, North Korea ordered the expulsion of foreign residents, even the spouses of its citizens.

In 1962, Mircioiu returned to Romania with her daughter, who was suffering from a lack of calcium. They have never been allowed to re-enter North Korea. From her husband’s letter, Mircioiu learned that he was sent to the coal mining town of Sinsan the day after she left Pyongyang. She eventually lost contact with him in 1967. Today, she still anxiously awaits any update, continuing her appeals with international organizations. She has also pleaded with the embassies of both Koreas, but to no avail.

In the early 2000s, North Korean war orphans became known in Poland, thanks to the effort of journalist Jolanta Krysowata. In 2001, Krysowata spotted a small metal epithet bearing an unfamiliar name, Kim Ki Dok, in a cemetery in Wroclaw. She discovered that it was the tomb of a North Korean girl, who died of leukemia at 13 in 1955. Krysowata produced a radio documentary based on Kim’s story in 2003. It developed into the TV documentary “Kim Ki Dok,” aired in 2006, and then the novel “Feathers of Fallen Angels,” published in 2013.

In 2018, Korean actress-turned-director Chu Sang-mee produced a documentary film, “The Children Gone to Poland,” based on Krysowata’s TV documentary and novel.

Eastern Bloc countries took care of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 North Korean war orphans between 1951 and 1959. Romania accepted the most, some 2,500. Poland took in about 1,500 of the children.

Foster care and education of war orphans was part of a Soviet-orchestrated aid program for North Korea, whereas the host countries were also struggling for postwar reconstruction. As a sign of fraternal solidarity, the communist states proposed social, technical and financial initiatives toward North Korea. Their generous initiatives were not only geared for humanitarian reasons, but for propaganda as well, criticizing the consequences of the US intervention in the Korean conflict. (Nicolas Levi and Moon Kyung-yeon, “Historical Relations between Poland and North Korea from 1948 to 1980,” 2018)

“Regardless of the motivation on the part of authorities, I could see there had been no room for ideology or propaganda between local caretakers and North Korean staffs or the children,” Kim says. “Friendship and love blossomed between students, and between teachers. Ultimately, it was humanism that moved them and enriched their relationships.”

And this irreplaceable value is obviously what keeps Kim on track along his long, difficult quest to uncover history’s untold stories. Explaining several ongoing projects, Kim says he feels as if he has crossed the river of no return.

His top priorities include the organizing and hosting of the first Liberty International Movie Festival in November this year, either offline or online, or both, depending on the COVID-19 situation (134 entries received from 33 countries, so far); releasing a documentary film about North Korea’s repatriation program for pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan within this year; and producing a feature film with his own scenario based on Georgeta Mircioiu’s life story, tentatively titled “My Dear GG,” for international audiences.


Lee Kyong-hee
Lee Kyong-hee is a former editor-in-chief of The Korea Herald. She is currently editor-in-chief of Koreana, a quarterly magazine of Korean culture and arts published by the Korea Foundation. -- Ed.