Granddad, 101, brings plenty of gifts for family reunion
Baek Seong-gyu, 101, the oldest South Korean participant in the cross-border reunion smiles at a registration desk at Hanwha Resort in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Sunday. Yonhap
By Jung Da-min, Joint Press Corps
Southerners are bringing plenty of gifts for their northern family members during cross-border reunions.
Baek Seong-gyu, 101, the oldest South Korean participating, is bringing presents that include summer and winter clothes, underwear, 30 pairs of shoes, toothpaste, toothbrushes and 20 sets of stainless steel spoons and chopsticks, among others, for his granddaughter and daughter-in-law.
“This will surely be the last chance to meet my people from the North, so I have brought a lot,” Baek told reporters, laughing, Sunday, during a pre-gathering at Hanwha Resort in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, before the group left for the North on Monday morning. “This will be the last, unless I live 40 more years.”
Yoo Kwan-sik, 89, who also headed to the North, prepared sweet bean jellies for his daughter, 67. It will be the first time the father and daughter have met.
Yoo did not know he had a daughter until the Ministry of Unification notified him that he had been selected for the reunion.
“I was really surprised to learn I had a daughter I didn't know,” Yoo said. “It is a miracle. This is the happiest moment in my life.”
Yoo Kwan-sik, 89, who also headed to the North, shows a picture of his family members in the South in this photo during an interview at Hanwha resort in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, Sunday. Yonhap
Along with sweet bean jellies that Yoo never had in his days in the North, he is also bringing women's underwear and cosmetics, a box of Vitamin C tablets and nutritional supplements for the eyes as well as snacks for his grandchildren in the North. He also is bringing an alarm clock and a box of batteries.
Others from the South were bringing mostly daily necessities like clothes, socks, soap, underwear, sneakers or snacks.
Some packed boxes of “Choco pie,” a snack cake that gained popularity among North Korean workers in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, before it was shut down by the Park Geun-hye administration in February 2016.
The 21st family reunions are being held at a resort at Mount Geumgang. There are two reunions ― the first from Monday to Wednesday and the second from Friday to Sunday.
Southerners are bringing gifts galore for family members from North Korea. Yonhap