S. Korea wants family reunions for those separated by 1950s war
Print Edition
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye yesterday called for the first family reunions with North Korea in three years, a day after the two nations agreed to reopen a joint industrial zone.
In a speech marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, Park urged Pyongyang to “open its heart” and agree to a meeting next month for families left divided for decades by the Korean War.
The South Korean leader also welcomed Wednesday’s agreement on the Kaesong industrial park, which she said could start “inter-Korea relations anew” after months of sky-high tensions.
“I hope that the North will open its heart so that the divided families can be reunited around the Chuseok holiday,” Park said, referring to a Korean harvest festival that this year falls on September 19.
Millions of Koreans were left separated by the 1950-53 war. The last round of reunions to allow aging relatives to meet under Red Cross auspices took place in 2010, when as in previous rounds there were scenes of high emotion.
About 72,000 South Koreans — nearly half aged over 80 — are still alive and waiting for a chance to join the competitive family reunion events, which select up to a few hundred participants each time.
South Koreans are allowed only in rare circumstances to cross the militarized border.
“I have so much hope this time,” Song Il-Whan, a 77-year-old who was separated from his two siblings when he was 14, told Yonhap news agency.
“Look how old I am now... I really wish I could meet them this time,” said Song, adding he had been applying for the family reunion program for the past 15 years with no success.
North Korea last month proposed to hold talks on resuming the family reunion program in conjunction with discussions about the Kaesong industrial complex. But it retracted the offer after Seoul insisted the two issues be dealt with separately.
The Seoul-invested industrial zone, built just north of the border in 2004 as a rare symbol of cooperation, ground to a halt in April after remaining immune to cross-border political swings for years.
“This agreement is not an end but only a beginning,” Seoul’s chief negotiator Kim Ki-Woong said.
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