THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Moon Seong Wook is a tall, handsome, young Korean whose family on his father's side is from North Korea - actually from ``the village with a hundred houses''; everyone in that small village is surnamed Moon.
Seong Wook's father came south alone in January 1951 after the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950. At that time he was a high-school student. After a few years he married in South Korea and had a family of three daughters and two sons, one of whom is Seong Wook.
Mr. Moon worked hard to feed his growing family. He died at age 40, when Seong Wook was 10 years old. Seong Wook says there were no last words. His father was talking with a friend when he had a brain hemorrhage.
However, Seong Wook can feel his father's mind. The son's hope is to visit ``the hundred house village'' in North Korea which was his father's hometown.
I am the first American woman he has met, and my student says he has found me to be kind. ``Please pray for reunification in my lifetime, Mrs. Williamson, so that my little hope can come true. Both North and South Koreans share common ancestors who live in our collective hearts.''
On that day, June 17, as Seong Wook talked with me about his favorite topic for the final exam in English conversation in the American Studies Program at Keimyung University in Taegu, South Korea, it seemed that another Korean War might be imminent.
I asked him what he would do if that were the case, and he said sadly, ``I will go to the battleground.''
ELEANOR R. WILLIAMSON
Portsmouth, July 6, 1994 by CNB