Korean families torn by war rejoice in reunion

Sokcho, South Korea, Oct 20

Nearly 400 South Koreans crossed the heavily armed border into North Korea on Tuesday to be reunited, in an outpouring of emotions and tears, with family members separated for more than six decades since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas, which are divided and remain in a technical state of war, agreed to hold the family reunions for the first time since February last year after negotiating the end of a standoff at the military border in August.

Participants, some as old as 88, were reunited at the resort of Mount Kumgang just north of the militarised border with children and spouses from whom they had been separated when the peninsula was divided at the end of the war. “Father, it’s me, your son,” Chae Hee-yang, 65, from the South told Chae Hoon-sik, 88, from the North, as they wept at their first meeting since the younger man was just a year old, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Families separated since the war have no means of communication and often do not know if relatives on the other side are surviving. — Reuters