Urgent need for Koreans to reunite

In a decade, most survivors of the war will have died, expert says

GYODONG ISLAND, ROK — Retired farmer Hwang Rae-ha would love to see his mother again, but nearly 70 years after he last set eyes on her, he said he would settle for a photograph.

“Too much time has passed by, and it is over now,” he said, standing near his home within sight of the border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “I don’t think she is alive.”

During the Korean War (1950-53), which raged up and down the Korean Peninsula for three years, Hwang’s family fled to Gyodong Island, in what is now the Republic of Korea.

But his mother returned to their home in the DPRK and has stayed there.

Hwang, now 77, stayed on Gyodong Island, even building a home within sight of the DPRK, hoping one day his mother would return.

So far, there has only been silence.

With tensions easing, the two nations plan to revive the cross-border family reunions that were halted three years ago.

More than 57,000 ROK survivors are registered with their government, hoping for a shot at a brief meeting with loved ones.

This year, 93 ROK citizens and 88 DPRK citizens have been selected for a new round of reunions that will begin on Aug 20 at a resort in the DPRK’s Mount Kumgang, a popular tourist region.

“I still cry whenever I talk about my family, I will probably cry again once I see them,” said 82-year-old Bae Soon-hui, who was picked to meet her sisters for the first time since the war.

Hwang, the farmer, was not one of the few picked for this new round of meetings.

“When can we meet our loved ones?” he asked. “After all of us are dead? ... There are 50,000 people waiting all over the country.”

Since 1988, 132,484 ROK citizens have added their names to a government registry, hoping to reunite with their families. But survivors of the war are aging rapidly, and 75,425 people on that list have already died, the vast majority without ever having seen their relatives again.

In a decade, most of the survivors — in their 80s or 90s — will have died, said Cheong Seong-chang, vice-president of Research Planning at Seoul’s Sejong Institute.

A lifetime of trauma

For many survivors, the reunions offer the first details of their family’s fate following the war that left more than 1.2 million dead.

“I will probably ask them how they have been, and when mother died,” Bae said of her sisters. “That’s what I want to know.”

Seoul and Pyongyang first agreed to hold reunions after a historic inter-Korea summit in 2000. The reunions were held every year until 2015. Over that period, 2,046 people were picked by a computer which prioritizes them on factors including their age and family background.

Others are selected when their relatives in the DPRK request a meeting.

“I could not believe it at first, I thought I was being scammed,” said Kim Hyunsook, 91, describing her shock when her daughter and granddaughter in the DPRK asked to meet her in 2015.

“When the time was up, I let go of my daughter’s hand, and went to the bus,” Kim said. “The moment I sat down, I could not speak.”