Dear Pyongyang

The filmmaker, Yonghi Yang, is a second generation Korean who was born and raised in Japan. She was raised by parents who dedicated their lives to their ”home country” of North Korea as activist leaders of the General Association of Korean Residents. More than thirty years ago her three brothers “returned” to North Korea. They still live in Pyongyang and thus her family is dispersed.

Why did her father and mother, with their pronounced reverence for family ties, send their sons away to live in their isolated “home country?”

We accompany Yang and her parents on a visit to North Korea where they are all too briefly reunited with the rest of their family. We also see them at home, diligently maintaining their relationships with loved ones far away.

Yang, who is fiercely independent, has trouble accepting her parents' choices, and seeks through the making of this film to understand the reasons behind their sacrifice. Through repeated attempts to broach the issue, initially rejected, her parents eventually begin to open up. While confronting her father's death, the father and daughter begin to develop a powerful new bond, and we are witness, finally, to a growing acceptance between parents and child of each other’s differences and choices in life – whether fully understood or not.