Korean families reunited for first time in 60 years
Print Edition
ABOUT 80 elderly South Koreans yesterday met privately with North Korean relatives they haven’t seen for 60 years, on the second day of a highly charged reunion for families separated by the Korean War.
In contrast to the previous day when their tearful and, in some cases, clearly traumatic meetings were played out in front of TV cameras, they were allowed three hours in their own rooms to try to bridge the decades of separation.
The event, held at a resort in North Korea, was only secured after intense North-South negotiations, and has been seen by many as a possible first step toward improved inter-Korean cooperation.
It is the first such reunion for more than three years, and followed a rare concession from North Korea, which had threatened to cancel if South Korea and the US pushed ahead with joint military drills set to start on Monday.
The 82 South Korean participants, with an average age of 84 and some so frail they had to be moved by ambulance, arrived at the resort at mid-day on Thursday after crossing the militarized border in a convoy of 10 buses.
After lunch, they were led into a banquet hall where they first came face-to-face with the 180 North Korean relatives they had applied to see. Some embraced and sobbed, while others stared and stroked each other’s faces.
Photos were exchanged and lovingly pored over, including old black-and-white ones of the family when it was together as well as new color pictures of husbands, wives, children and grandchildren that neither side knew even existed.
One of the oldest South Koreans, a 93-year-old man who was separated from his pregnant wife during the 1950-53 conflict, met the now 64-year-old son he had never seen.
“Let me hug you,” the father said and then, sobbing, they both embraced — the resemblance strikingly clear to people watching.
Tens of millions of people were displaced by the Korean War.
The reunion program began after a historic summit in 2000, but the numbers clamoring for a chance to participate have always far outstripped those actually selected.
For many people, time simply ran out.
Last year alone, 3,800 South Koreans who had applied for reunions died.
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