After reunions, separated families part ways amid reality of division

By Kim Soo-yeon and Joint Press Corps MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- Kim Wol-soon, a 93-year-old South Korean with dementia, did not recognize her 72-year-old son in North Korea, Joo Jae-eun, last week when she saw him for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War. She had to part with Joo in 1950, leaving him at her parents' house in North Korea with a message promising to return ten days later. But in what may be a miracle, Kim came to her senses on Monday, the final day of the three-day reunions for families separated by the war, ahead of a painful farewell. She presented her son with a cherished gold ring from her own hand, in what could be her last parting gift. "Even if you don't need it, I would like to give it to you. Please take it even if you throw it away," Kim told her son, who declined to accept it. "I can now go in peace." Kim was among some 640 South Koreans who crossed the heavily fortified inter-Korean border last week to meet with their family members living in North Korea whom they have not seen since the Korean War. South and North Korea held the two rounds of three-day reunions involving a combined 186 families separated by the war from last Tuesday to Monday at a scenic resort on Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast. The issue of separated families is the most pressing humanitarian matter for South and North Korea. More than 66,000 South Koreans are living without being allowed to contact their family members in the North as a legacy of the three-year conflict. The two Koreas remain technically at war as it ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the rival Koreas have held 20 rounds of face-to-face family reunion events including the latest one, involving only some 19,800 family members from both sides. The family reunions, the first since February 2014, was the outcome of the two Koreas' landmark deal on Aug. 25 to ease military tension and make efforts to mend the frayed inter-Korean ties. The Seoul-Pyongyang relations took a dramatic turn this year as both sides eked out the deal following heightened tension over a landmine blast blamed on the North in early August. The incident maimed two South Korean soldiers near the border. Almost all of the separated families had their own heart-wrenching stories as living witnesses of Korea's modern history -- division of the two Koreas and the devastating war. Such families had six sessions of reunions for two hours each, but it was far from enough to catch up with one another following a 65-year-long separation. They exchanged their home addresses and precious belongings as well as took photos together. The 98-year-old Lee Suk-ju, the eldest South Korean who joined the event, gave the black coat off his back to his 70-year-old son in the North, 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. Among the participants was Jung Gun-mok, a 64-year-old former fisherman who was abducted by North Korea in the Yellow Sea about 40 years ago. After having the much-awaited but short reunions with his mother Lee Bok-soon, 88, Jung wished her good health as tears continued to stream down in her face. "Don't worry, mother. I am healthy," Jung said. "Please, don't cry." The highly-emotional family reunions should be handled from a humanitarian perspective, but North Korea has politicized them by putting strings attached or used them as the venue for promoting North Korea's own propaganda. Many of the South Korean families cannot help realizing the grim reality of the two Koreas' division as some North Koreans praised its leader Kim Jong-un and promoted the North's regime during the reunions. Other North Koreans insisted that U.S. forces stationing in the South should be removed from the peninsula for unification. Time is running out for separated families as most of the surviving family members are in their 80s and older. About half of an estimated 129,700 South Koreans on the waiting list for the reunions have died. As more members of families torn by the war have passed away, reunions between parents and children or between the couple have become rarer. This time, most of the families were reunited with their siblings or close relatives. In the first round of the reunions ended on Thursday, almost 99 percent of participating 96 elderly North Koreans are aged between 80 and 89. For the second round, 37.8 percent of 90 elderly South Koreans are aged in their 90s. The separated families said that what's urgent is to hold such reunions on a regular basis. Exchanges of letters should be immediately allowed, they claimed. "Please, let us meet again. Let us exchange letters with each other," Bae Sang-seok, a 60-year-old South Korean, said Monday during a reunion with his older brother in North Korea. Lee Bong-jin, an 82-year-old South Korean man, said that he felt relieved to meet with his relatives in North Korea, but also felt that there is a long way to go before unification. "The reunions helped lift an incredible weight off my shoulders," Lee said after bidding farewell to his two cousins in North Korea. "As I've confirmed that they're alive, I am no longer sad. But I also realized that unification is an issue that will take time to be resolved," he added. sooyeon@yna.co.kr (END)