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Korea Panorama 70 Years Finding Dispersed Families

At 10:15 on the night of June 30th, 1983 a KBS special live program titled “Finding Dispersed Families” went on air. The show, aired to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Korean War, introduced stories of people who had left their homes and family members behind.

Amazingly, 30 minutes into the show the first reunion miraculously took place, and the station was flooded with so many calls looking for missing family members that the program had to be extended well into next day. In fact, the live telecast of “Finding Dispersed Families” that kicked off on June 30th, 1983 lasted until November 14.

Over those 138 days more than 100,000 applications for reunion were received, 53,536 families appeared on TV, 10,189 families were reunited, and set the record for the longest continuous live broadcast with 453 hours and 45 minutes.