A second group of South Koreans on Saturday headed for North Korea to meet their relatives at the reunion event for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. “North Koreans have a real interest in and a substantial understanding about life in South Korea, so it is hard to stop them [from seeking out more information]”.
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Seeing his son who’s now in his seventies South Korea’s oldest participant, 98-year-old Lee Seok-ju said he was devastated that this will be the first and last time he will be able to see his son after waiting for 65 years.
Interaction between the families was tightly controlled; the meetings were limited to six two-hour sessions, including a few meetings in a communal hall.
Despite North Korea’s efforts to shun South Korean practices and living standards from its people, tour guides in the North have been observed to have an increasing knowledge on the South’s life and culture evidently implying that information on their rival country is widely spread, reported Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. In the first round of reunions earlier in the week, about 390 South Koreans traveled to the resort to meet with 180 North Korean relatives.
He had left his son behind in 1950 as he fled to the South to avoid being mobilised for the North Korean army. “Your sister’s gone, forget about her”, her mother said. Showing his family in the North, Jeong comforts his weeping mother, . saying he’s content with his life in North Korea.
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. Ordinary citizens from the two Koreas have been deprived of means of contact for decades.
South Korea uses a computerized lottery system to pick participants for the reunions while North Korea reportedly chooses based on loyalty to its authoritarian leadership.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun says he will no longer dispute the Constitutional Court’s ruling against the relocation of the country’s administrative capital outside of Seoul, pledging to continuously pursue balanced regional development through other projects.
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Almost half of the 130,410 South Koreans who have applied to attend a reunion have died.
