North Korean War Orphans in Romania (1950-1970)

• In Event: “Onward! No Retreat!”: The Matters & Memory of Asia’s Conversations with Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War I

Abstract

This paper explores the North Korean war orphans who were sent to Romania in the 1950s and how they fit into the North Korean state's conceptualization of good socialist children and how those children remained within the state's purview despite their physical distance. This paper will also explore how images of the suffering North Korean child was used in Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria during the Cold War to rally up support for North Korea during the Korean War and how far these states went in terms of helping North Korea and upholding socialist solidarity.

Author

• Bianca Trifoi, U of Alaska Anchorage