2nd round of war-split family reunions begins

Kang Jeong-ok, left, 100, the oldest participant from the South, who came all the way from Jeju Island, cries with her younger sister Kang Jeong-hwa, right, 85, from the North at the Mount Kumgang Reunion Center, North Korea, Friday. South Koreans from 81 families, mostly in their 70s and older, met their long-separated North Korean relatives in the reunion event which runs through Sunday. / Joint Press Corps

By Park Ji-won, Joint Press Corps

The first day of the second round of inter-Korean family reunions began Friday at 3:15 p.m. at Mount Geumgang in the North.

This time, 326 South Koreans from 81 families who were mostly separated during the chaos of the Korean War are visiting the North accompanied by family members, for another three-day reunion through Sunday. They stayed one night at the east coastal city of Sokcho in the South a day earlier before heading to the North. The first session of family reunions was held from Monday to Wednesday.

The families were given 12 hours to spend together in total, including three hours in private.

Cho Jeong-ki, left, 67, from South Korea, and his father Cho Deok-yong, 88, from the North hold hands together at the Mount Kumgang Reunion Center, North Korea, Friday. They split, when the son was still in his mother's womb, at the height of Korean War. / Joint Press Corps.

Cho Jeong-ki, 67, embraced his father Cho Deok-yong, 88, for the first time in his life as they wept. The son and father were the only parent-child reunion.

“It is your first son, first son,” the son said through tears. “I have been waiting (for you) for 58 years. I never thought you would be alive.”

He added, “Father, it is okay (because) I saw you. (But I feel sorry) for my mom. Don't you say sorry to me?”

When Cho Jeong-ki gave his handkerchief to his father, Doek-yong said, “why did you buy this?” Jeong-ki replied, “I bought this to wipe away my tears.”

Cho earlier told reporters, “On the one hand I am happy and on the other I am sad because my mother passed away very recently. My mother waited 68 years to meet my father, so I am going to meet him for her.”

His father went by himself to the North during the Korean War while his mother was pregnant with Cho.

Mok Won-sun, second from right, 85, from the South cries after meeting his older brother Kim In-young (nee Mok Won-hee), center, 86, from the North, at the Mount Kumgang Reunion Center in North Korea, Friday. As his younger brother Won-sun thought his older brother Won-hee had died during the war, he hadn't registered on the list of separated families to find his sibling. / Joint Press Corps

The South's Mok Won-sun, 85, met his older brother Kim In-young, 86, from the North with his two siblings from the South. According to Mok, his brother changed his name to Kim In-young from Mok Won-hee. Won-sun thought his brother had died during the war.

“Since a friend of my older brother, who escaped a U.S. attack by being dragged along with the North Korean army, told me my brother Won-hee died, I believed him and didn't register on the list of separated families,” Mok Won-sun told reporters earlier.

The oldest participant from the South is 100-year-old Kang Jeong-ok, who came all the way from Jeju Island to meet her younger sister Kang Jeong-hwa from the North.

Kang came with another younger sister Kang Soon-yeo. Her sister Jeong-wha left Jeju Island at age 17, getting a job at a textile factory in Seoul, but they lost touch three months later when the war broke out, according to the North's younger sister.

Getting ready to meet her older sister, Soon-yeo applied her lipstick again.

“I cannot believe this,” the North's sister Jeong-wha said.

“Jeong-wha, Jeong-wha, oh my Jeong-wha. Please hug me. Thank you Jeong-wha,” the oldest participant said right after meeting her younger sister.

Jeong-ok said “I am good” when asked how she felt after meeting her younger sister from the South.

“Thank you. I am going to meet my sister,” said the oldest participant before heading to the reunion.

For their sister from the North, they brought five boxes of presents such as clothes, shoes and medicines.

Holding reunions in August was one of the agreements in the Panmunjeom Declaration reached at the April 27 summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The second session of reunions, however, was almost rescheduled due to a powerful typhoon approaching the Korean Peninsula. But it worked out as scheduled.

The last reunions were held three years ago in October 2015, and resuming them had been an urgent issue as most of the surviving people are elderly. According to government data, 85 percent of them are in their 70s or older.

This is the 21st set of reunions since the first ones held in 2000, after leaders of the South and North met the same year.

Over 130,000 South Koreans are registered as separated family members. The past 20 reunions enabled around 20,000 people to reunite with long-lost relatives, but this is only 15 percent of the total number registered.