In the years leading up to and directly following rapprochement with China in 1992, the South Korean government looked to ethnic Korean (Chos njok) brides and laborers from northeastern China to restore productivity to its industries and countryside. South Korean officials and the media celebrated these overtures not only as a pragmatic solution to population problems but also as a patriotic project of reuniting ethnic Koreans after nearly fifty years of Cold War separation.

As Caren Freeman's fieldwork in China and South Korea shows, the attempt to bridge the geopolitical divide in...