A Sister’s Silent Wait: 75 Years After Her Brother Was Taken in the Korean War

For 75 years, Min Young-jae has lived with the pain of silence  no word, no trace of her eldest brother since the day he was taken. 

                           (Min Young-jae)

He was 19. She was just 2. It was June 25, 1950, when North Korean forces crossed the border, launching the Korean War that would kill over a million and fracture more than 100,000 families like Min’s.

“We were known in the neighborhood as a happy family,” says the now 77-year-old, sitting beside her older sister, Min Jeong-ja, who quietly nods in remembrance.

Their family’s peace shattered overnight, and decades later, the pain still lingers. Like thousands of others separated by war and politics, the Min sisters carry hope in their hearts — hope that the world never forgets the human cost of conflict.