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A GROUP OF 82 elderly and frail South Koreans held an emotional reunion with family members in North Korea today, more than 60 years after they were separated by the Korean War.
The first North-South family reunion for more than three years began around 3pm (6am GMT) with a mass gathering in the main hall of a resort on North Korea’s Mount Kumgang, a Unification Ministry official said in Seoul.
The event was the result of tortuous, high-level negotiations between Pyongyang and Seoul, which nearly broke down over the North’s objections to overlapping joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.
The South Korean group and the 180 North Korean relatives who have come to meet them were all scheduled to dine together, with more private reunions planned for Friday.
Officials in Seoul revealed today that among the North Korean relatives were two fishermen who had been kidnapped by the North in the 1970s.
Hope and fears
The South Korean group, with an average age of 84, had left the eastern port city of Sokcho at 8:30am on board 10 buses, with half a dozen police vehicles as escorts.
South Korean Lee Son-hyang (88) and her brother Lee Yoon Geun (72) of North Korea as they are reunited.
The departure was delayed as two female members of the group needed medical attention, and ended up being placed into ambulances for the journey.
More than a dozen were in wheelchairs and needed help boarding the buses, which they shared with 58 family members, brought along for physical as well as emotional support.
After crossing the heavily militarised border, they arrived at the reunion venue where a brief lunch was followed by the first sight in six decades of their long-separated relatives.
Before boarding the buses in Sokcho, some spoke of their hopes and anxieties ahead of the meetings they had dreamed of for so long.
Buses carrying the South Koreans across the border. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Jong-geun)
“I think when I see her face, I won’t believe it’s real,” Kim Dong-Bin, 81, said of the elder sister he left decades ago in Pyongyang.
I wonder if I will be able to recognise her immediately? It’s been so long.
All carried bags stuffed with gifts, ranging from basic medicines to framed family photos and packets of instant noodles.
Some brought bags of fresh fruit which they planned to offer in a joint prayer ceremony with their reunited siblings to their late parents.
“The gifts I’m bringing to my sister should be good. Something you can’t see much in North Korea so I hope she will be happy,” said Kim Se-Rin, 85.
“I’ve also included some US dollars for her and my younger brother,” Kim said.
Final farewell
Millions of Koreans were separated by the 1950-53 war, and the vast majority have since died without having any communication at all with surviving relatives.
Because the conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are banned.
(AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Jong-geun)
The reunion programme began in earnest after a historic North-South summit in 2000, but the waiting list has always been far larger than the numbers that could be accommodated.
For many people, time simply ran out. Last year alone 3,800 South Korean applicants for reunions died without ever seeing their relatives.
For all the joy the reunion brings, it is tempered by the realisation that — given the participants’ advanced ages — it also marks a final farewell.
“This will be our first and last reunion,” Kim Dong-Bin acknowledged, shaking his head.
Etiquette
All the South Korean participants had spent the night in a Sokcho hotel, where they were given an “orientation” course by South Korean officials listing a series of dos and don’ts for their stay in Mount Kumgang.
“They were basically telling people not to discuss any political issues and not to be swayed by North Korean propaganda,” said Kim’s wife, Shin Myung-Soon.
The Kumgang event will be the first reunion since the programme was suspended following the North’s shelling of a South Korean border island in 2010.
A reunion had been planned at the same venue for last September, but was cancelled at the last minute by the North.
The emotional meetings with the 180 North Korean relatives will last until Saturday, after which the South Korean group will return home.
Then a selected group of 88 North Koreans will travel to Mount Kumgang to meet 361 of their relatives from the South from Sunday to Tuesday.
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You’d actually miss Steve Jobs floating around the place, there’s a lot of charisma gone from the company. The man made a bug look like a feature.
I really like Craig Federighi, he’s a very different vibe to Jobs but his sections have been the highlight of the past few keynotes.
Yup, just what we need. More vacuous crap to excite the cult.
Ahh Jake, was wondering when you’d get here. Excited to see what Samsung will be releasing in 6 months?
It looks this article was initially posted a week or two ago but we now know for certain that the iPad Pro is being announced tonight. 12.9 inch display and much faster processor. And I agree David, Federighi has developed into a really smooth presenter.
@David, we already know what Samsung will announce, another android device giving people the ability to tailor their user experience to their wants in a great value piece of tech, often with groundbreaking invention.
I’ll say it now, the Samsung tab I received as a gift over a year and a half ago (costing my gf 220 quid) remains the most impressive tech device I have ever had for such a small price tag. I use it for 2 hours most evenings, charging it every 4/5 days. The screen is excellent, the processor fast. I’ve bounced it on tiles, carpet and wooden floors and though the back shows a thousand scratches the experience is unchanged.
There’s a difference between build quality and the feel of build quality. I feel Apple hits the latter.
an sd card slot, increased battery life, ah here get a grip on yourself!!!
Did anyone tell iPhone Joan about this
She’s sending some undercover gardai…
Technology wankfest.
There’ll be an announcement that the thing they announced as the GREATEST iTHING IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE a few months ago is now an outdated peice of rubbish that everyone will laught at you over. But you can avoid that laughter by paying even more money for the new GREATEST iTHING IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. Pay someone to start queueing now!!
iDrones… so predictable
Rose gold is auspicious to the Chinese hence the watch colour.. Pure marketing ploy..
Belfast it is :)
Or parcel motel :)
A massive circle jerk
Did you not get your invitation?
what’s the point !!
Animated backgrounds and motion sensor remote. Give us micro sd slots in phones and a browser for Apple TV
SD slot will never happen when they can get a monthly fee for iCloud.
Sigh.
When you think about it, both those things would be more of a hindrance than a help.
No matter what platform you use, cloud storage is the way forward, and using your TV to browse the Internet, is that really a good way to work?
Just a hyped up outdated product announcements which are based on proprietary outdated technology and too expensive. good marketing job though.
Yeah, big swingin’ Mickey !
Please, please let it be a iPod wheel in-place of a keyboard
You people are crazy if you don’t think that would be greatest invention of the 21st Century
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
My phone is better than your phone woooo me! I am winning! Im going to make you feel inadequate about your phone because my phone has some particular features I use that you dont need. Whats that you have? An iPhone? Seriously? You know Samsungs are better right? OH MY GAWWWWW
Since when is a pic with windows 10 an apple product ?
Shut up and take my money.
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