South Koreans chosen to attend a family reunion event in North Korea register after arriving at a hotel used as a gathering point at Sokcho, on the east side of the South Korean peninsula, near the demilitarised zone, on Monday. — AFP
South Koreans chosen to attend a family reunion event in North Korea register after arriving at a hotel used as a gathering point at Sokcho, on the east side of the South Korean peninsula, near the demilitarised zone, on Monday. — AFP
Almost 400 South Koreans — many of them elderly, some in wheelchairs, all in a state of nervous anticipation — gathered on Monday before crossing into North Korea for a rare and emotional reunion with separated family members.
The reunion beginning Tuesday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang will be only the second in the past five years — the result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to ease tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict.
Millions of people were displaced by the sweep of the 1950-53 Korean War, which saw the frontline yo-yo from the south of the Korean peninsula to the northern border with China and back again.
The chaos and devastation separated brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives.
“We were separated at the beginning of the war when I was just nine years old,” Choi Kum-Sun, 75, said of her elder brother in the North. “I had no idea that he was still alive, but then I got the notification that he wanted to see me. I still can’t believe it,” she wept.
Like a significant number of the elderly or infirm participants, Ms Choi was in a wheelchair. She said she had packed clothes, food and $1,000 in cash to take as a gift.
The two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are banned.
The reunion programme began in earnest after a North-South summit in 2000, but the numbers clamouring for a chance to take part have always far outstripped those selected.
