hankyoreh

The first day of the 20th round of reunions for divided Korean families at Mt. Kumgang resort in Oct. 2015. (Shin So-young

Reunions of families divided by the Korean War will be taking place from Aug. 20 to 26 at North Korea’s Mt. Kumgang tourism district. These will be the first reunions held in two years and 10 months, since the 20th reunions in Oct. 2015.

During this month’s event, which will consist of two rounds as usual, a total of 534 family members from South and North Korea will be embracing their blood relations as they’ve long dreamed of doing. Many tears will be shed. The first round, which will last for three days, will involve 89 South Koreans, including a 101-year-old man named Baek Seong-gyu. Baek will be meeting his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, who live in North Korea. The divided families will spend a total of 11 hours together over the course of six events, starting with a group reunion and continuing with a welcome dinner, individual reunions and room visits.

This time around, the families will be having lunch together for an hour in their rooms, which will be the first time that the divided families have shared a meal alone. The second round of the reunions, which will reunite 83 North Koreans with their South Korean relatives, will be held from Aug. 24 to 26.

This reunion was one of the fruits of the Apr. 27 Panmunjom Declaration. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to hold reunions for the divided families on the occasion of Korea’s Liberation Day on Aug. 15, and the reunions have finally become a reality, after many twists and turns. This is an encouraging development. But the reunion of families that have been wrenched apart should not end with this event.

During the 18 years since 2000, the divided families have had a total of 20 face-to-face reunions and seven video reunions. But only 4,677 family members in South and North Korea have tasted the joy of reunion. There have been far too few opportunities. During thaws in inter-Korean relations, two reunions were held a year, but when the relationship turned icy, the reunions have been halted. That’s why there’s a desperate need to make the reunions a regular occurrence.

Even more important, the majority of the divided family members are advanced in age. There’s not much time for them to meet on this side of the grave. Of the 132,000 South Koreans who applied for divided family reunions with the Unification Ministry, 75,000, or 55 percent, have already passed away. That leaves about 57,000 survivors, more than 63 percent of whom are above 80 years old. Twenty-one percent of the survivors, or more than 12,100, are above 90 years old. In fact, nine South Korean divided family members had to back out of the reunions for reasons related to their advanced age and health, which is a real shame.

Each member of the divided family has his or her own heartbreaking story, and each faced the agony of longing to be reunited with their flesh and blood. The thought of this pain ought to motivate the South and North Korean authorities to find ways to institute regular and larger reunions and to create more diverse forms of reunions, including video chats and correspondence. Many challenges remain, including the end-of-war declaration, denuclearization and improving North Korea-US ties. But South and North Korea must not ignore humanitarian issues. We hope that Kim Jong-un will make a bold and generous decision.

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