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“Waiting is the hardest part”

February 19, 2014

85-year-old anxious to meet kid brother for 1st time in 70 years; 82 ready for reunions

Kim Sung-yoon, 96, the oldest among 82 elderly South Koreans scheduled for inter-Korean family reunions, speaks to a doctor during a medical checkup in Hanwha Resort at the eastern coastal city of Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Wednesday. The senior citizens will travel by bus to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea today for a three-day meeting with their separated siblings and relatives. (Yonhap)

By Chung Min-uck, Joel Lee

A group of senior citizens looked as if they were back in elementary school waiting for their first field day, Wednesday, excited and anxious in equal parts.

That might be an understatement since they, 82 to be exact, were about to meet their siblings and other relatives from North Korea for the first time in more than 60 years, when they were in their teens or early 20s.

Jun Ho-yeon, 81, was among the first batch of family members, separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War, who gathered at the eastern coastal resort of Sokcho, Gangwon Province, as part of preparations for the reunion.

“I feel overjoyed at seeing my younger brother again. I have prepared some gifts, such as winter clothes including a parka and long johns, and medicine, instant noodles, Choco-Pies and $500 in cash,” Jun said.

When he spoke to The Korea Times, Jun was on his way by bus to Sokcho before moving to Mt. Geumgang, the North’s resort, which is the site of the first part of family reunions set for Thursday through Saturday.

Jun said he lived in a small fishing village in South Hamkyung Province before coming to Seoul six decades ago.

“As a 12-year-old kid, I had a dream of pursuing studies so I came to Seoul in 1942 with my elder cousin. But little did I know my goodbye would be the last sight of my family,” he said. “My feelings have been indescribable. After years of vain efforts to reunite, my emotions turned apathetic — even my tears have long since dried up.”

The unification ministry said the 82 who arrived at a resort in Sokcho underwent medical checkups and were given details of what to expect when they are taken into North Korea by bus today.

Fourteen others couldn’t make the trip for health and other reasons.

A week ago, The Korea Times met Ma Soo-il, an 85-year-old, who was 20 when he fled to the South.

“I used to live in Gaeseong with my parents and younger sister. I retreated to the South in the hope that I’d be able to return home after the war. Being separated from my family was like losing the entire world,” Ma said. “Even though I was a normal person in my everyday life, every time I heard news of my hometown or drank a shot of soju, tears would suddenly flow from my eyes.”

Ma said he got the news of his sister’s death through a North Korean source.

“Now my heart is struck by mixed feelings. I will meet the two nieces of my deceased sister.”

Kim Dong-bin, 79, lived in a remote rural village near Pyongyang with his parents and elder sister. “When I came back home from a relative’s house in late 1950, the house was empty as all my family fled from an imminent raid. I left the next day with a group of 100 schoolmates, who in youthful exuberance decided to march all the way south to Seoul,” he said.

Kim said he has applied for reunions continuously since the early 1980s.

“Walking the soil of my hometown after national reunification has been my lifelong dream. As an 80 year-old man, my earnest prayer has been fulfilled in part at last,” he said during an interview Wednesday. “I heard from a source my parents gave birth to five more children since I left. I’m thrilled to see my elder sister again, and several of my younger siblings I’ve never seen before. I want to resolve their possible misunderstanding as to why I left them.”

On Sunday, about 361 other South Koreans plan to hold a second round of reunions with 88 North Korean relatives in the North’s resort before they return home Tuesday, the ministry said.

The family reunions are a pressing humanitarian issue on the divided peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s.