Bittersweet Tears as Divided Koreans Meet after 60 Years

South Korean Park Yang-gon (R), 53, and his North Korean brother
Park Yang-su, who was abducted by North Korea, cry during their
family reunion at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Elderly relatives meet in snowy North Korean resort at reunion brokered by high-level negotiations between Pyongyang and Seoul

Several hundred elderly South and North Korean relatives yesterday clung to each-other, rocking and weeping, and trading photos and faded memories as they met after 60 years Thursday at a reunion for families divided by the Korean War.

The emotional gathering at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort was the result of tortuous, high-level negotiations between Pyongyang and Seoul, which had nearly broken down over the North’s objections to overlapping South Korea-US military drills.

Television footage showed snow falling hard as 82 South Koreans - some so frail they had to be stretchered indoors - arrived at the resort in a convoy of buses to meet 180 North Korean relatives they have not seen for decades.

Inside the main hall, where numbered tables had been laid out, there were moving scenes as divided brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, step-siblings and in-laws sought each other out and then collapsed into each others’ arms.

One of the oldest South Koreans, a 93-year-old man who was separated from his pregnant wife during the 1950-53 conflict, met the now 64-year-old son he had never seen. » | AFP | Thursday, February 20, 2014

North Korea Proposes Family Reunions with South

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Kim Jong-un's regime sends surprise letter to South Korea calling for reconciliation

North Korea has made a sudden proposal for the resumption of reunions for families separated since the Korean War, saying the programme could help improve cross-border ties.

South Korea immediately welcomed the offer, which followed a recent series of trust-building gestures from the nuclear-armed communist country.

The North's Red Cross faxed a message to its South Korean counterpart, calling for a family reunion event after the Lunar New Year on January 31, according to its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North suggested that the South could choose a date for the event "at its convenience" after the Lunar New Year when the weather thaws. » | AFP | Friday, January 24, 2014