In the years following Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, communists in North Korea killed Christian ministers and independence fighters indiscriminately. Great-Uncle Yun Guk, fearing his presence might cause harm to the family, escaped the communists by crossing south over the 38th parallel and settling in Jeong-seon. No one in our family was aware of this. He supported himself in that remote mountain valley by selling calligraphy brushes. Later, we were told that he set up a traditional village school where he taught Chinese classics. According to some of his former students, he often enjoyed spontaneously composing poems in Chinese characters. His students transcribed and preserved some 130 of these, including the following:

South North Peace
南北平和
Ten years have passed since I left home to come South
在前十載越南州
The flow of time speeds my hair to turn white
流水光陰催白頭
I would return North, but how can I?
故園欲 去安能去
What was intended as a short sojourn has been prolonged
別 界薄遊爲久游
Wearing the long-sleeved ko-hemp clothing of summer
袗 長着知當夏
I fan myself with a silk fan and consider what the autumn will bring
紈扇動搖畏及秋
Peace between South and North draws near
南 北平和今不遠
Children waiting under the eaves,
You needn’t worry so much.
候兒女莫深愁