Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People

Codirector David Chung introduces the film chronicling a tragic and overlooked chapter in world history.

In 1937, Stalin began a program of ethnic cleansing that deported roughly 180,000 people of Korean origin (collectively labeled as "unreliable") from the Far East of Russia to present-day Kazakhstan, 3700 miles away. Koryo Saram (the Soviet Korean phrase for a Korean person) chronicles this massive displacement and examines its legacy today. (60 mins., video)

Chung, an artist and filmmaker, is also the director of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan.

Cosponsored by Ohio State's Institute for Korean Studies and Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.