Many inter-Korean family reunion participants are in their 80s, and have already lost family members they remember
Some South Koreans who were separated from their families during the Korean War say they are ambivalent about participating in next week’s inter-Korean reunions.
The reunion for separated families will take place from August 20 to 26 in the North’s Kumgang mountain resort. The reunion is one of a number of cooperation and exchange programs to promote reconciliation that were agreed to by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the inter-Korean summit in April.
Already passed
This year less than 100 family members from both the North and South will participate.
Many participants are in their 80s and have already lost the families they remember.
Baik Seong-yeon, 84, learned her brothers and sisters in North Korea had already passed away after she was selected to join the upcoming reunion for separated families.
Baik will meet with the spouses of her late brother and sister, and with a niece from the North Korean side of her family. And she is not expecting an emotional meeting with these distant relatives that she dos not know.
“As I have not met them before, I do not have a personal attachment, but I think that we are blood-related,” said Baik.
Decades of division
Baik, who was born in Sunchon, in the South Pyongan Province of North Korea, fled to the South to escape the fighting during the war.
