Koreans to meet after decades apart

Lee Soo-nam was 8 the last time he saw his older brother. Sixty-eight years ago this month the boy watched, bewildered, as his 18-year-old brother left their home in Seoul to escape invading North Korean soldiers who were conscripting young men just weeks after invading South Korea to start the Korean War.

An hour later, his brother, Ri Jong Song, was snatched up by North Korean soldiers near a bridge across Seoul’s Han River. Lee always assumed Ri died during the three-year war that killed and injured millions before a cease-fire in 1953, but his mother prayed daily for her lost son’s return, giving up only a few years before her death in 1975.

But Ri survived the war, living in North Korea. The brothers, now 76 and 86, will be among hundreds of Koreans who will participate, starting Monday, in a week of temporary reunions of divided families. Many have had no contact with each other since the war cemented the division of the Korean Peninsula into the North and South.

The elderly relatives gathering at North Korea’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort know that, given the fickle nature of ties between the rival Koreas, this could be the last time they see each other before they die.

“I’m nervous. I’m still unsure whether this is a dream or reality. I just want to thank him for staying alive all these years,” Lee said in an interview in his home in Seoul, not far from where he last saw his brother.

Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press Lee Soo-nam, 76, arranges gifts for family members of his brother Ri Jong Song in North Korea during an interview at his home in Seoul, South Korea. Lee is among about 200 war-separated South Koreans and their family members who are crossing into North Korea for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives they havent seen for decades. The week-long event beginning Monday at North Koreas Diamond Mountain resort come as the rival Koreas boost reconciliation efforts amid a diplomatic push to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.