National Post (National Edition)
‘Don’t cry’: Koreans bid farewell to families
First cross-border reunions end in tears, embraces
SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OF • As her two North Korean daughters, both in their 70s, wailed outside her bus, 99-year-old Han Shin-ja pounded the windows from inside in despair, moving her lips to say “don’t cry” and “farewell.”
As her bus left for South Korea on Wednesday, Han’s daughters chased the vehicle before being stopped by a North Korean official, a predictable but no less heartwrenching departure that’s likely to be the last time they see each other after decades of separation.
Han’s family was among hundreds of elderly Koreans who tearfully said their final goodbyes at the end of the first round of rare reunions between relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
About 200 South Koreans returned home after the end of three days of meetings with North Korean relatives at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort. Another 337 South Koreans will participate in a second round of reunions starting Friday.
The first set of meetings created highly emotional images of relatives weeping, embracing each other in a rush of emotions. Many of the South Korean participants were war refugees who reunited with siblings or infant children they left behind, many now into their 70s.
At their final meeting on Wednesday, 91-year-old Lee Ki-soon seemed lost for words as he shared a glass of “soju,” a vodka-like alcohol, with his 75-year-old North Korean son. Lee later told his son, Ri Kang Son, “I am not your fake father. You have a father.” Ri replied: “Be healthy and live long. Then we can meet again,” according to pool reports.
An Jong Sun, a 70-yearold North Korean, carefully fed her 100-year-old South Korean father. In the same large meeting hall, Kim Byung-oh, 88, quietly wept as his 81-year-old North Korean sister tried to calm him.
Nearby, Ri Chol, a 61-yearold North Korean, was also in tears as he grasped the hands of a 93-year-old South Korean grandmother he was only just getting to know.
“Don’t cry, Chol,” an equally emotional Kwon Seok told her grandson.
Han told her two North Korean daughters to eat a lot of sticky rice, for health. She toldthemshewouldalways pray for their happiness and also for the future of her North Korean great-grandchildren she never got to see.
Some relatives exchanged phone numbers and addresses, although the Koreas have banned citizens from contacting relatives on the other side of the border.
After organizers announced that the reunions were officially over, Han and her daughters wept, embraced and refused to leave their lunch table. Two North Korean officials politely separated Han from one of her daughters, 71-year-old Kim Kyong Yong, who kept holding on to one of Han’s arms.