Tears, farewell hugs conclude 1st round of Korean reunions
SEOUL, South Korea — 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 moving vehicle before being stopped by a North Korean official, a predictable but no less heart-wrenching 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 from Friday to Sunday.
The first set of meetings created highly emotional images of relatives weeping, embracing and caressing 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 of whom are now into their 70s.
At their final lunch meeting Wednesday, 91-year-old Lee Ki-soon initially seemed lost for words as he shared a glass of “soju,” a vodka-like alcohol loved in both Koreas, 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-year-old North Korean, carefully fed her 100-year-old South Korean father food. 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-year-old 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 “chap-ssal,” or sticky rice, for health. She told them she would always pray for their happiness and also for the future of her North Korean greatgrandchildren she never got to see.
Some relatives exchanged their phone numbers and home addresses, although the Koreas since the end of the war have banned ordinary citizens from visiting relatives on the other side of the border or contacting them without permission.
Nearly 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of face-to-face reunions held between the countries since 2000. No one has had a second chance to see their relatives.