Suburban Koreans express cautious optimism after peace talks
Korean immigrants in the suburbs expressed cautious optimism Friday for a lasting peace following a historic summit between the leaders of North Korea and South Korea.
"It was kind of exciting. I didn't know what to expect," said Poongja Cho, of Des Plaines, who was watching news coverage late Thursday of the meeting at the border between Kim Jong Un of the North and Moon Jae-in of the South.
"Kim Jong Un - my impression is he's kind of a monstrous person. And I don't know, now he's gonna change last minute his attitude, his proposals, his conditions?" Cho said. "But it went really well. I'm optimistic, but cautiously optimistic. Yesterday's affair was kind of encouraging. Kind of something upbeat. We are all excited."
The meeting - in which the two leaders pledged to seek a formal end to the Korean War and rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons - was the talk of the Wheeling-based Korean Cultural Center of Chicago on Friday. The center, which opened in 2010, houses a museum of Korean culture and art, and it hosts events and computer and dance classes.
Cho, the center's vice president, noted the common language, customs and culture of people in the North and South, as depicted in the museum's collection of clothing, games, musical instruments and other items.
"It's a great tragedy," she said of the separation that's lasted some seven decades. "We cannot go there. They cannot come to us. It's two economic disparities."
But, she added, "we are all the same people. All the same."
Connie Chung Dmochowsky, a board member of the cultural center, also expressed a positive view, though she is cautious because of how long the separation has lasted.
Dmochowsky's father was born in Pyongyang - what is the North Korean capital today - but left with his family as a child for Seoul in the South. Her father supposes any relatives they had in the North "are probably all gone now."
"(There's) a lot of sorrow attached to what happened to us," said Dmochowsky, of Skokie. "It took so long for us actually to see this more peaceful connection. We're hoping for the best. We'll see what happens."
In Naperville, South Korean native Bum Yong Kim talked about the news while having lunch at Kimchihana Korean Gourmet within the plaza of the H Mart Korean grocer.
Kim, visiting from St. Louis, said he was "pretty amazed" and "very relieved" to learn of the plans for a peace treaty between the North and South.
"I did think within my lifetime that there may be a reunification," Kim said.