Families gather for rare North, South Korea reunion

AFP, SOKCHO, South Korea: Close to 400 South Koreans, many of them elderly and nearly all in a state of fevered anticipation, gathered Monday before crossing into North Korea for a rare reunion with separated family members.
Beginning Tuesday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, it will be only the second such reunion in the past five years—the result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to de-escalate tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict.
Tens of 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, Choi was in a wheelchair. She told AFP she had packed clothes, food and US$1,000 in cash to
take as a gift.
Because the Korean conflict concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are prohibited.
The reunion programme began in earnest after a historic North-South summit in 2000.

 

Families gather for rare North, South Korea reunion

AFP, SOKCHO, South Korea: Close to 400 South Koreans, many of them elderly and nearly all in a state of fevered anticipation, gathered Monday before crossing into North Korea for a rare reunion with separated family members. Beginning Tuesday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, it will be only the second such reunion in the past five yearsthe result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to de-escalate tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict. Tens of 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 cant believe it, she wept. Like a significant number of the elderly or infirm participants, Choi was in a wheelchair. She told AFP she had packed clothes, food and US$1,000 in cash to take as a gift. Because the Korean conflict concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are prohibited. The reunion programme began in earnest after a historic North-South summit in 2000.