Bittersweet reunions for Koreans ‘like a dagger in our hearts’
SHE had waited more than 60 years to see her son. When Lee Keum-seom, 92, finally set eyes on Ri Sang-chol, the 71-year-old she had been forced to leave behind in North Korea when he was four, Ms Lee wailed and pulled him to her chest. “Sang-chol!” she cried.
Mr Ri wept and pulled out a family photo showing his father, Ms Lee’s husband, who had already died. “Mother, it’s your husband,” he said. “It’s father.”
The bittersweet moment came as 89 elderly South Koreans were taken to the North’s Mount Kumgang tourist resort to meet relatives they had not seen since the Korean War of 1950-53.
The carefully selected families were given the rare opportunity to meet again amid a diplomatic thaw between Seoul and Pyongyang that began when the countries’ two leaders came together for a historic summit in April.
These were the last surviving remnant of millions forcibly separated without warning after the Korean peninsula was permanently divided between North and South.
The reunions were taking place over three days but relatives would have just 11 hours, under close supervision, to catch up before parting.
Around them, other relatives met. Baek Sung-gyu, 101, met his daughterin-law, Kim Myong-sun, 71, for the first time. She handed him a photo of his now deceased son. “Can I take this home?” Mr Baek asked. “You can,” she replied.
Before the long bus journey North, he said he had packed clothes and toothbrushes as gifts for Ms Kim and his granddaughter. “I also brought 20 stainless spoons,” he added. “I brought everything because it’s my last time.”
The families were the lucky few selected from more than 57,000 South Korean war survivors who registered for a chance to see long-lost loved ones.
For some, now older than 70, the re- union came too late. Chung Hak-soon, 89, had dreamt of seeing her older brother again, only to find out that he had died. “I really wished to see even the face of my brother, but the reunion has come too late,” she said. Instead, like others on the trip, she would only meet family she had never seen before.
The two Koreas have held 20 such reunions since the first inter-korean summit in 2000. According to local news reports, 3,000 applicants died in the first half of this year. Thousands of others have been left heartbroken in the twilight of their lives after failing to make it through the selection process.
When told of a 95-year-old who cried at failing to be selected, Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, said he “deeply sympathised with their sorrow”.
It’s like putting a dagger through our hearts,” said Lee Myung-sik, 84, who would not take part in this week’s event.
He escaped from the North when his father was shot by soldiers. “My neighbour told me people had come to my house to arrest me, so I ran away,” he said. Now, after decades of being unable to even send a letter home, Mr Lee has little time for political gestures.
“It’s more cruel than murder,” he said. “They need to let us stay in touch.”