Korean families reunite, briefly

Painful meetings underline urgency of peace talks: expert

In a poignant potential first and last chance to meet, a handful of South and North Korean families began a weeklong reunion on Monday following nearly seven decades of separation brought about by the 195053 Korean War.

Some 89 South Koreans held the first meetings with family members from North Korea at a Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s east coast on Monday afternoon, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday.

The families were scheduled to meet again Tuesday morning and then eat lunch together.

Some 83 North Koreans will reunite at the resort with families from the South from Friday to Sunday, Yonhap reported.

Families won the opportunity to reunite by lottery, Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

“It is a joyful as well as a painful moment for them since elderly members may meet their long-separated family members but soon afterwards have to say ‘goodbye.’” The heartbreaking final departure moment will remind Koreans of the necessity of peace to prevent such tragedies, Lü said.

The reunion should promote denuclearization “instead of only using regional stability as bargaining chips,” Kim Jin-ho, a professor of international relations at South Korea’s Dankook University said.

Monday’s family get-together resulted from an agreement reached by North and South Korean leaders in April to address humanitarian issues arising from nearly 70 years of division caused by the war.

It was the first of its kind since October 2015, Yonhap reported.

“It was a touching moment to see the Koreans, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s, reunite with their families,” Hwang Jaeho, a professor at the Division of International Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, told the Global Times on Monday.

“And many of them could only meet their nephews, other relatives after their brother or sister or father or mother had passed away.”

The reunion is among the few issues the South Korean government can currently promote, Hwang noted, as the US is unhappy about the escalating exchanges between the two Koreas, which is affecting sanctions against North Korea.

Hwang said that the reunion could also create good momentum for the third summit in September between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The two Koreas may talk over the possibility of signing a declaration on ending the warring state on the peninsula, which could also involve China and the US, Hwang said.