Koryo-saram meet in Amsterdam on Korea’s Liberation Day
On 15 August, the 81st anniversary of Korea’s liberation, descendants of Koryo-saram and of the Sakhalin Koreans from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany came together in a Korean restaurant in Amsterdam. The meeting was organised by Yonhap, South Korea’s national news agency, as part of its six-month series on Koreans in Central Asia and beyond, and our chairman, Pavel Tyan, was one of the guests.
Most of the guests had never met before. Over Korean food the conversation moved between Russian and English and soon turned to Korea, to their roots, and to the journeys of their grandparents’ and parents’ generations, which for many families go back to the forced deportation of 1937. By the end of the day, people who had lived in different cities without knowing about one another had exchanged contact details and promised to stay in touch. Together they also visited the Dutch Resistance Museum.
Yonhap reported on the meeting in early September. Its reports point out that Koryo-saram in Europe live scattered across many cities, without large communities of their own, and that they hardly appear in official statistics. For us, that is a good reason to keep creating occasions where these stories can be told and families can find each other.
In the press
Yonhap News Agency
- [한·중앙아를 잇다]⑬ 떠밀린 이주에서 선택한 터전으로…유럽에 뿌리내린 고려인 (“[Connecting Korea and Central Asia] 13: From forced migration to a chosen home: Koryo-saram who have taken root in Europe”), 4 September 2026
- [한·중앙아를 잇다]⑭ 160년 유랑 넘어 공존으로…함께할 ‘다음 이웃’ (“[Connecting Korea and Central Asia] 14: Beyond 160 years of wandering to coexistence: the ‘next neighbours’ we will share the future with”), 4 September 2026
- [사진톡톡] 연해주에서 중앙아까지, 다시 유럽으로…160년 길 위의 사람들 (“[Photo Talk] From Primorye through Central Asia and on to Europe: 160 years of people on the road”), 5 September 2026