KOREA: SEOUL: SOIL FROM ANCESTRAL HOMELANDS IS BIG HIT скачать в хорошем качестве

KOREA: SEOUL: SOIL FROM ANCESTRAL HOMELANDS IS BIG HIT

(10 Jan 1996) Korean/Nat For most North Koreans settled in the South, a bag of soil from the North is the closest they can get to their ancestral homeland. Several thousand former North Koreans have been hoping recently to see, touch and feel some of their native soil, and sprinkle it on family graves. A Seoul-based trading company is now re-negotiating with North Korea to import 300 tons of earth, after the shipment was suddenly cancelled. On a remote, frozen hillside near Seoul, a widow pays her respects at the family tomb. Park Woon-Yong sings a hymn in memory of her husband who died in 1978. North Koreans by birth, the couple and their daughter fled to the South during the Korean war more than forty years ago, leaving their close relatives behind. Mrs Park hasn't seen her mother and older sister since. All those years she has lived with the pain of being separated from people she loved, not allowed to visit them or to hear news of them. Mrs Park doesn't ask for much - just a little soil from home to sprinkle on her husband's grave. SOUNDBITE: (in Korean) "We are waiting for the soil because we have a longing for our homeland. So since it is not possible for us to return to it, we at least want to see and touch the soil from our homeland. Also, the deceased, they died without having fulfilled their lifelong wish to return to the homeland. We want to cover their graves with the soil." SUPERCAPTION: Park Woon-Yong If anyone can get soil from North Korea, it's Young Il, Kim - a South Korean whose Seoul-based company specialises in trading with the North. With the permission of his government, Mr Kim imports goods from North Korea. Products range from water pumps and generators to ingredients of Chinese medicines. Mr Kim arranged for 12,000 sacks of earth to be sent free of charge from the North to the South. The soil was loaded onto a ship, but after news of the gesture leaked to the press, the North Koreans had a change of heart and unloaded it. SOUNDBITE: (in Korean) "According to what I was told by the North Koreans I contacted today, the reason for the delay in the delivery of the soil is that some of the North Korean provinces were harder hit by the floods than the others. And they weren't able to get their promised bags of soil ready to be shipped. As soon as they get their soil packed and ready to go the entire shipment of soil from North Korea will be sent to us." SUPERCAPTION: Young Il, Kim/President, Hyo Won Moolsan Co., Ltd Mr Kim is hopeful the soil will arrive by the end of February, perhaps even sooner. Seven thousand South Koreans await it. When the soil didn't come the disappointment was keenly felt in a culture where ties to the land, home and ancestors run deep. 70 percent of the seven thousand South Koreans who requested the soil have never lived in the North. Many wanted it as gifts for their parents, like Lee Jin-Duk. Her father fled North Korea during the war, parted from his family until his death in 1990. She would like to scatter his grave with earth from North Korea, symbolically at least reuniting him with home. But after a lifetime forcibly parted from North Korea, Mrs Lee, and Mrs Park will have to wait longer to touch and smell home. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...