Postwar adoptee spends final days helping orphans

Interesting article about a young North Korean adopted in 1961 by an American professor, now terminally ill with cancer, and trying to give back to North Korean orphans:

A photo of a 12-year-old North Korean boy on Sam Han's laptop computer pulls the dying man a half-century back in time, across continents to a place where he once wandered alone in search of his parents.


Separated from his family during the Korean War, Han was sheltered by strangers until an unlikely meeting set him on a remarkable journey to the United States. He was adopted by a Minnesota professor, immigrated under a special bill from Congress and years later became a successful business executive.

Han, a 65-year-old cancer patient, wants to give other overseas orphans a shot at making a life for themselves, but there are plenty of obstacles and so much to do.

And his time is running out.

The soft-spoken man with twinkling eyes sleeps little. He spends most days working to ship soy flour and rice meal packages to North Korean orphanages and help build a school for orphans in Tanzania. He spends nights on the phone with advocates overseas and punches out letters to lawmakers to push for a bill to let Americans adopt North Korean orphans.

 Recall, most adoptees from Korea are from SOUTH Korea.