By Kim Sue-young, Joint Press Corps.
Staff Reporter

Displaced inter-Korean families met their relatives for the first time in decades as family reunions were resumed in North Korea, Saturday, after a 23-month suspension.

Lee Kwae-seok, a prisoner of war (POW), and two abductees, Roh Sung-ho and Jin Young-ho, had tearful reunions with their family members from the South.

``I've never forgotten my mother,'' Lee told his brother Jung-ho. ``I am so happy to see you that I can't even shed tears.''

He went missing after joining the Korean War in 1950. His brother volunteered for military service to find his elder brother but failed to locate him.

The two abductees, crewmembers of the fishing boat Dongjin which was seized by the North in 1987, also hugged their families and never stopped crying.

``I got married and entered university. I live well here,'' Roh, who showed up at the reunion with his wife and daughter, told his sister Soon-ho.

The fishing boat strayed into North Korean waters in January that year. The North's Red Cross organization indicated it would send the vessel and 12 fishermen on board home, but then remained silent after a North Korean family defected to the South.

Later, the North insisted that the crewmembers voluntarily crossed into its territory and hoped to settle down there.

Inter-Korean separated family reunions were suspended in 2007 after the North unilaterally cut off communication channels between the South and North Korean Red Cross offices.

But the two agreed to resume the reunions in the wake of Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun's visit to the North and her meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in mid-August.

The first three-day segment of the reunions of 97 South Koreans and their North Korean families ends today after a goodbye session at Mt. Geumgnag Hotel in North Korea.

The second segment will begin Tuesday, and, this time, 100 North Koreans will meet their families and relatives from the South for three days.

South Korea's Red Cross chief Yoo Jong-ha stressed that the reunions should go on and more chances should be offered.

``The North side said they agree to the idea based on humanitarianism,'' he said after meeting with his North Korean counterpart Jang Jae-on. ``We want more of the reunions regardless of the ups and downs of the situation on the peninsula.''

Yoo promised to do whatever he could at the Red Cross level such as providing medical aid for the elderly and children.

North Korea reportedly asked for some returns for its ``special favor'' regarding the resumed reunions, but Jang said the North Koreans did not give details over areas such as rice and fertilizer assistance.

Over the last 10 years, about 40,000 of 120,000 applicants for the reunions have died before getting a chance to meet their families in the North, according to the South's Red Cross.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr