광장의 정동과 남한의 전쟁난민들—KBS 특별생방송 <이산가족을 찾습니다>(1983)를 중심으로—

Abstract

This paper discusses the singularity and exceptionality of the KBS Special Live Broadcast “Finding Dispersed Families” in 1983. The live show was broadcast for a total of 138 days from June 30th to November 14th in the year. Countless number of separated families rushed to Yeouido, where the TV station was located, and filled the Yeouido square. The sorrow and desperation of the dispersed families drew favorable responses from domestic and foreign media and government agencies. While the dispersed families had been often politically used in the framework of the divisional politics after the Korean War, the event paved the way for the dispersed families to reveal themselves as actors in history, meaning the 1983 event created “a point of discontinuity” in the history of separation on the Korean peninsula. This paper focuses on three aspects related to this broadcast. Firstly, this live broadcast was thought to focus on the issue of dispersed families between the two Koreas. But it actually focused on helping separated families living only in South Korea. Domestic, meaning South Korea, separated families should be conceptually seen as war refugees: the persons who have come from North Korea and the children who have lost their families during the war. Secondly, the show was used by the South Korean govern-ment for anti-Communism purposes. Even though the event was initially planned for humanitarian purposes, once it turned out to draw unexpectedly enormous interest, the show was given a lot of power. South Korea used the power as a propaganda to practice psychological warfare in support of its regime. Finally, novels and movies describe the 1983 event in the context of the family search narratives from the perspective of the war refugees. These stories often reveal the desire for wealth that the refugees want to enjoy by reuniting with their missing families regardless of its humanitarian or political base.