MOUNT KUMGANG: Dozens of South Koreans met their long-separated North Korean families again on the second day of their reunions Tuesday in a relatively freer setting.
On Monday, 89 elderly South Koreans and 185 North Korean people saw each other in a group reunion at this scenic resort on the North’s east coast for the first time since they were mostly separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The families met again from about 10 a.m. Tuesday, this time in their hotel rooms. The North Koreans came to the rooms where their South Korean relatives were staying for the private meetings.
Many were clad in Korean traditional clothes or hanbok. Some brought gifts such as ginseng and cosmetics prepared for those who traveled all the way here to reunite with their families.
They also ate lunch together in the rooms right after the morning meeting. This marked the first time ever that separated families have had such private lunchtime together during family reunion events.
Lee Young-boo, 76, was satisfied with the freer setting than a day earlier.
“It felt much freer and better,” said Lee, who came here to meet his two nephews and one niece living in the North. “The food also tasted great.”
The families held another group meeting in the afternoon. On Wednesday, the last day of their three-day stay here, they will have one last chance to meet as a group, followed by a group lunch before returning to the South.
Following the three-day reunions that will end Wednesday, 83 North Koreans will also reunite with their relatives found to be alive in the South from Friday through Sunday. More than 300 South Koreans will travel to the venue later this week for the event.
The family reunion event comes amid a thaw in inter-Korean relations. It is a follow-up on an agreement their leaders reached in an April summit to address humanitarian challenges arising from decades of division caused by the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Moreover, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the ongoing inter-Korean family reunion event that brought together Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean war, his spokesman said.
The majority of those selected to take part in the week-long event, which began on Monday, are elderly.
Many have not seen each other since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“(The Secretary-General) hopes that such reunion events will become routine and include many more people, including affected Koreans worldwide, allow participants to meet privately, and to remain in contact after the meetings,” his Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The reunions, which are taking place in Mount Kumgang, North Korea, are the first to be held since 2015.
They stem from the historic summit held in April between the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in.
In the outcome document, the two leaders further declared “there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula”. They also “confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.”
The UN chief has welcomed the efforts by the two countries to continue their engagement and to take steps to build confidence and trust.
“The Secretary-General looks forward to discussing how he can further support the parties in their diplomatic efforts to bring sustainable peace, security, and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during the upcoming high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly,” the statement added.
