Mother, son reunited after 67 years
South Korean Lee Keum-seom, 92, embraces her son, Ri Sang Chol, 71, during a reunion Monday in North Korea. Dozens of elderly South Koreans crossed the border for heartwrenching meetings with long-separated kin.
SEOUL, South Korea — For two hours Monday, a 92-year-old woman held her son’s hand and looked him in the eyes for the first time in more than 65 years, as family members from North and South Korea were permitted a rare chance to see one another after war divided their country and separated relatives.
The son, Ri Sang Chol, a 71-year-old North Korean, looked older than his mother, Lee Geum-seom, who has spent more than six decades in the South, since fighting in the Korean War ended in 1953.
Separated in the chaos of the war, the pair had not seen each other — or communicated in any way — until Monday, when Lee and 88 other elderly South Koreans were allowed to cross the heavily armed border between the Koreas for a three-day reunion with family members in the North.
“Mother, this is father,” Ri said, showing Lee a photograph of her deceased husband, who had also stayed in the North.
Lee would not let go of her son’s hand during a two-hour group reunion Monday at the Diamond Mountain resort in southeast North Korea, according to a pool report by a small group of South Korean journalists permitted to attend the event.
Lee bombarded her son with questions. “How many children do you have?” she asked. “Do you have a son?”
In all, about 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of reunions since 1985, when the first such gatherings were organized. Selected participants are not allowed a second chance to see their relatives and the last round of reunions was in 2015.
A separate group of 83 elderly North Koreans will arrive at the Diamond Mountain resort Friday for a three-day reunion with their South Korean relatives.
South Korea has repeatedly urged the North to hold more reunions. But Pyongyang has been reluctant to expand the program, fearing the impact that meetings with affluent South Koreans might have on its impoverished population.
North Korea is believed to select people for reunions on the basis of loyalty to its regime. It is also thought to prepare them extensively for the meetings, when North Koreans typically insist that they live happy lives as a result of the generosity of their leader, Kim Jong Un, and often blame the United States for preventing reunification on the Korean Peninsula.