It is always heart warming to see the images of the separated families meeting during these infrequent family reunions, but I always wonder how much the Kim regime receives from the ROK in return for hosting them?:
This file photo, taken on Feb. 20, 2014, shows the reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War held at Mount Kumgang in North Korea. (Yonhap)
Ryoo Si-bong, 76, cannot sleep well these days on anticipation that South and North Korea’s recent landmark deal on easing military tension may make his lifelong wish come true: meeting his older sister living in North Korea.
Until the 1950-53 Korean War broke out, Ryoo, who used to live in China’s northeastern region of Manchuria, never thought he would not be able to see his sister again when she moved to North Korea after marriage.
Following several failed attempts to join the state-arranged family reunions, Ryoo is now voicing hope that he may have a chance to meet his 92-year-old sister as the two Koreas agreed in late August to resume the much-awaited reunions of families separated by the war.
“I want to know whether she is alive or not. My lifelong wish is to meet my sister before I die,” Ryoo said, showing an undelivered letter that he wrote to her two years ago while missing her. “This time, I want to be picked for the upcoming reunion event.”
Ryoo is among more than 66,000 surviving South Korean family members separated by the Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving South and North Korea technically at war.
Inter-Korean relations have long been strained amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations, but burgeoning signs of better ties are now growing, backed by the two Koreas’ deal on easing a recent military standoff.
South and North Korea have agreed to make efforts to improve their ties and push for the resumption of the family reunions on the occasion of Korea’s fall harvest holiday, Chuseok, slated for late September. The family reunions were last held in February 2014. [Korea Times]
