As Jung-Eun Kim, leader of North Korea and Trump repeat tensions over the recent Korean circumstances, there are people who are forgotten. The most tragic history from Korean War still remains as the existence of “separated families”. But over the years, it has become unfamiliar since the public confront ‘North Korea issue’ through media only recognizing nuclear threat. We needed to publicize the pain of the separated families and let them know that unification is important in our lives. It was a meaningful campaign as we used ‘perfume’ which is an emotional attribute, to communicate politically sensitive issue, leading immediate reaction of the public as well as the separated families.

We collaborated with 1,569 of separated family members and heard about their longing hometown scent in North. We created 5 kinds of perfumes based on their interviews, thus the perfumes contain families’ memories, representing five regions of North Korea. Story of their longing memories has become a key ingredient. We delivered perfume to elders, and they felt a warm consolation in their forgotten memories of home. Also, we held [The Scent of NORTHtalgia] Exhibition for 3 months and shared the story of separated families with people at International Unification Tourist Complex, Odusan Unification Observatory, and Nurispace which is the center of Seoul. People can naturally understand and sympathize with their longing by reading the label of the perfumes and trying the perfume as it contains separated elders’ tragic stories.