Separated families part again after temporary reunion

(ATTN: CHANGES lead, headline; UPDATES with more stories through 10th para)
MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of family members
separated for nearly six decades by the Korean War parted ways again Thursday
after briefly reuniting at this mountain resort amid thawing relations between
their governments.
For most of the elderly family members, another reunion may never again be
possible. Bitter cries, wails and lamentations filled the air, as North Koreans,
craning and holding out their hands from departing buses, bade final farewells to
their loved ones from the South.
"Mother, please be healthy!" Ri Hye-gyong, 75, shouted as her mother from the
South, Kim Yu-jung, shed silent tears in a wheelchair.
For the mother and daughter, the three-day reunion was their first, and perhaps
last, chance to see each other since the daughter was taken by the North's
military in 1951 in the midst of the Korean War.
"No worries, because I am doing fine," Kim, the oldest participant in the
reunions at age 100, said.
Jang Jeong-gyo, 83, watched her husband depart again, like he left for war 59
years ago. She didn't let go of his hands, even as the bus moved, and asked how
she could reach him.
"Can I call you? Is there any way to contact you," she cried.
"No, No," Ro lamented. "Why do we have to meet like this?," he said, "When the
reunification comes and we can hold hands. That will be real."
Jang never remarried, raising a son and daughter alone after her husband was
conscripted into the North Korean military at the onset of the war, when she was
23. Ro settled down in the North with a new family.
For some, the shock of re-separation was too great to bear. Choi Chung-won, 61,
collapsed while wailing with his older brother, Jong-won, 75, and his wife from
the North in the final reunion session at the Kumgangsan Convention Center. After
regaining consciousness, he initially rejected medical care so as not to miss the
last session. After brief emergency care, he returned to the venue.
The South Korean families will return home by bus through the military
demarcation line later in the day.
The event brought together 98 North Koreans and their 428 relatives in the South,
who have not seen each other since the war that left an uncrossable border on the
peninsula. It was the second segment of reunions arranged for North Koreans
seeking their kin in the South. An earlier event that ended Monday was held for
97 South Koreans looking for their loved ones in the North, whose number totaled
228.
The family reunions, arranged by the Red Cross offices of both sides, were the
first in nearly two years and a sign of improving political relations between the
Koreas. North Korea last month agreed to the humanitarian event as part of
conciliatory moves toward South Korea and the United States.
In exchange for its softening policies, North Korea wanted the South to resume
rice and fertilizer aid and reopen a profitable tour program to the reunion
venue, Mount Kumgang. Some Seoul officials indicated flexibility, but no
decisions have been made yet.
"The North Korean nuclear issue is not connected to the issue of whether to
resume the Mount Kumgang tour program," Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho
said Tuesday. If Seoul had placed the issue within the multilateral context on
the North's nuclear weapons program, a solution would be a more distant
prospect.
Seoul suspended the Mount Kumgang tours, operated by Hyundai Asan Corp., in July
last year after a South Korean woman was shot to death by a North Korean soldier
after straying into an off-limits military zone.
The tour program, run by South Korea's Hyundai Asan Corp., had been a cash cow
for the impoverished North, which is now under financial and other sanctions
imposed by the U.N. after its nuclear test in May. According to data from Hyundai
Asan, the firm has paid North Korea a total of US$487 million in tour fees since
it launched the program in 1998. Hyundai has spent an additional $714 million to
build the resort and facilities.
More than 1.9 million South Koreans have visited the Mount Kumgang resort.
The Koreas agreed to frequently hold family reunions in their historic first
summit in 2000. More than 127,000 people in the South have since signed up for
the reunions, but nearly a third of them have died due to old age. About 1 in 800
is selected.
About 16,000 people have been reunited through face-to-face unions so far. The
number of South Koreans believed to have family in the North is estimated at
600,000.
A 75-year-old man, who was identified only by his family name of Lee, took his
own life earlier this week after he failed to make the list of participants.
Ordinary Koreans cannot exchange phone calls, letters or e-mail across the border.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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