Hope grows for separated family reunion

The government’s push for the reunion of separated families is expected to speed up as the two Koreas agreed Tuesday to resume the event that has been suspended since early last year.

Seoul and Pyongyang made an agreement to organize a fresh round of separated family reunions around Chuseok in September and to regularize it in the future. This was part of the six-point agreement reached at the 43-hour marathon negotiation at the border village of Panmunjeom.

For this, a working-level meeting will be held early next month to negotiate the details, Cheong Wa Dae said. 

The regular reunion was suspended in February last year after the North crossed the Northern Limit Line three times while the event was being held. Having kicked off in 1985, reunions have been held 18 times so far, with most of them being held annually since 2000.

Earlier this month, President Park Geun-hye expressed the will to resume reunions of the separated families as part of efforts to recover inter-Korean ties. Park also stated that “(the South) hopes to exchange a list of the separated families with the North within this year” in the commemorative speech for the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day earlier this month.

On Aug. 5, the Unification Ministry also proposed high-level talks for various agenda items, including the resumption of separated family reunions. North Korea, however, had refused.

Hyundai Asan Corp., the exclusive operator of the Mount Geumgangsan tour, welcomed the agreement of the two Koreas.

“We will, as we have always, do our best in any given role as part of our efforts to support the improvement of the inter-Korean relationship, including the reunion of the separated families,” said the conglomerate.

While the details of the reunion are yet to be sorted out, it is likely to be held at Mount Geumgangsan in the North, insiders said. All reunions since 2002 have been held there.

As of late July, nearly 130,000 separated family members were registered with the Unification Ministry, though the ministry said 49 percent have died.

Of the survivors, more than 35,000 family members (54 percent) are aged 80 or older. The average age of the survivors is 78, the ministry said.

Only 26,000 separated family members from both sides of the Koreas have met with their loved ones since the two Koreas launched the reunion program in 1985, it added.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)