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Koreas’ separated families bid tearful farewell

October 26, 2015

North Korean Ku Song Ok,71, right, kisses her South Korean father Gu Sang-yeon, 98, as her North Korean sister Ku Sun Ok, 66, left, smiles after the Separated Family Reunion Meeting at the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. Hundreds of South Koreans crossed the border to North Korea on Saturday for the second and final round of reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. (Kim Do-hoon/Yonhap

Jung Gun-mok, front, a 64-year-old former South Korean fisherman who was abducted by North Korea in the Yellow Sea about 40 years ago, looks away as he is about to burst into tears, as he bids farewell to his mother on the bus. His mother Lee Bok-soon, 88, helplessly looks out the window as the bus is about to leave the resort on Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast on Oct. 26, 2015, the last day of the three-day reunions. (Yonhap)

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea (Yonhap) — Korean family members torn by the 1950-53 Korean War bid a tearful farewell to their relatives in North Korea on Monday after days of the much-awaited but short reunions.

A total of 90 families, or about 250 South Koreans, joined the last session of reunions with their family members in North Korea earlier in the day at a resort on Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast.

The first group of 96 South Korean families bade farewell Thursday after reuniting with their relatives in the North from Tuesday to Thursday.

“Please, let us meet again. Let us exchange letters with each other,” said Bae Sang-seok, a 60-year-old South Korean, at the final round of reunions with his older brother in North Korea.

The 98-year-old Lee Suk-ju, the eldest South Korean participating, gave the black coat that he was wearing to his 70-year-old son in North Korea, Dong-wook.

“Father, please live until the age of 130. I’ll live till the age of 100,” Dong-wook said, as the time to say goodbye approached.

Lee Keum-seok, a 93-year-old South Korean, expressed regret that she was not allowed to stay in the same room as her 74-year-old son in North Korea, Han Song-il, during the event.

“My mother said that it would be much better if she could have slept in the same room as her son,” said Han Kyung-ja, Lee’s daughter from South Korea.

The family reunions, the first since February 2014, are the result of South and North Korea’s landmark deal on Aug. 25 to make efforts to defuse military tension.

There are more than 66,000 South Korean family members separated by the Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving South and North Korea technically at war.

Their reunions have gained urgency as most of the surviving family members are in their 80s or older. About half of the estimated 129,700 South Koreans on the waiting list for the reunions have died.

Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two Koreas have held 20 rounds of face-to-face family reunion events involving only some 19,800 family members from both sides.