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BFF-24
SKOREA-NKOREA-FAMILY-REUNION
S. Korean families gather on eve of rare reunion
SOKCHO, South Korea, Aug 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Dozens of elderly and frail
South Koreans gathered excitedly Sunday on the eve of their first meeting for
nearly seven decades with family members in North Korea.
The three-day reunion — the first for three years — begins Monday at the
Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, following a rapid diplomatic thaw on the
peninsula.
Millions of people were swept apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, which
divided brothers and sisters, parents and children and husband and wives and
perpetuated the division of the peninsula.
Among them was Lee Keum-seom, now a tiny and frail 92. She was waiting to
see her son for the first time since she left him behind in the turmoil of
war.
She lost her husband and four-year-old son as their family fled, and
boarded a ferry headed for the South with only her infant daughter — who was
accompanying her to the reunion.
The son is now 71 and Lee has been told that he will bring his daughter-
in-law to the meeting.
“I don’t know what I’m feeling, whether it’s good or bad,” Lee told AFP.
“I don’t know if this is real or a dream.”
She raised seven children after remarrying in South Korea but always
worried about the son she left in the North. Now there are many questions to
ask.
“Where he lived, who he lived with and who raised him — because he was
only four,” she said.
Because the conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty,
the two Koreas have remained technically remain at war. All civilian
exchanges — even mundane family news — are banned.
– Time running out –
Since 2000 the two nations have held 20 rounds of reunions but time is
running out for many ageing family members.
More than 130,000 Southerners have signed up for a reunion since the
events began but most of them have since died. Most of those still waiting
are over 80 and the oldest participant this year is 101.
With a few people dropping out at the last minute for health reasons, 89
elderly South Koreans — accompanied by relatives — gathered in Sokcho city
on South Korea’s northeast coast to spend the night before heading to the
heavily-fortified border that has taken them decades to cross.
Lee Keum-seom is one of the few parents reuniting with a child.
Some of those selected for this year’s reunions dropped out after learning
that their parents or siblings had died and that they could only meet more
distant relatives whom they had never seen before.
But Lee Kwan-joo, 93, said he would meet his nephew and niece to get a
sense of the life that his parents and six siblings had led in the North
before they died.
Lee in 1945 went to school in Seoul, away from his family in Pyongyang,
and the war made the separation permanent.
“I was delighted to hear about my nephew and niece, even though I don’t
even know their faces,” Lee said. “I just want to ask them how my brothers,
sisters and parents passed away.”
Over the next three days, the participants will spend only about 11 hours
— mostly under the watchful eyes of North Korean agents — with their
relatives in the North.
And on Wednesday the families will be separated once again — in all
likelihood for a final time.
Families at previous reunions have often found it a bitter-sweet
experience. Some complained about the short time they were allowed to spend
together.
Others lamented the ideological gap between them after decades spent
apart.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1340 hrs