Korean relatives bid emotional farewell after reunions

Hundreds of elderly Koreans tearfully said their final goodbyes on Wednesday at the end of the first round of rare reunions between relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

About 200 South Koreans and their family members will return to the South later on Wednesday after the end of three days of meetings with North Korean relatives at the North's Diamond Mountain resort. Another 337 South Koreans will participate in a second round of reunions from Friday to Sunday.

The first set of reunions created heart-wrenching images of relatives weeping, embracing and caressing each other in a rush of emotions in what's likely to be the last time they'll see each other before they die. Many of the South Korean participants were war refugees who reunited with the siblings or infant children they left behind, many of whom are now into their 70s.

TRT World's Natasha Hussain has more.

At their final lunch meeting on Wednesday before the South Koreans were to return home, 91-year-old Lee Ki-soon seemed lost for words as he quietly drank a glass of soju with his 75-year-old North Korean son.

Nearby, Ri Chol, a 61-year-old North Korean, quietly wept as he grasped the hands of a 93-year-old South Korean grandmother he was only just getting to know.

"Don't cry, Chol," Kwon Seok, also in tears, told her grandson.

An Jong Sun, a 70-year-old North Korean, carefully fed her 100-year-old South Korean father food. Han Shin-ja, 99, told her two North Korean daughters to eat a lot of "chap-ssal," or sticky rice, for health. The daughters cried as Han told them she would always pray for their happiness and also for the future of her North Korean great-grandchildren she never got to see.

Some relatives exchanged their phone numbers and home addresses, although the Koreas since the end of the war have banned ordinary citizens from visiting relatives on the other side of the border or contacting them without permission.

Shin Jae-cheon, a 92-year-old from the South Korean town of Gimpo, not far from the border, lamented that his 70-year-old North Korean sister lived about an hour's drive away all these years.

"It will take 40 minutes for me to drive there," Shin told his sister, Sin Kum Sun, who lives in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. "The bus that goes to my home is No. 8. No. 8. The No. 8 bus," Shin added, expressing a wish for his sister to come visit one day.

Nearly 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of face-to-face reunions held between the countries since 2000. No one has had a second chance to see their relatives.

The latest reunions come after a three-year hiatus during which North Korea conducted three nuclear tests and multiple missile launches that demonstrated a potential capability to strike the US. mainland. 

Analysts say the North still has some work to do before those missiles are perfected, however. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has shifted toward diplomacy in 2018 and has met South Korean President Moon Jae-in twice and also held a summit with President Donald Trump.

While Seoul has long pushed for more reunions, analysts say North Korea is reluctant because of fears that increasing their frequency will loosen its authoritarian control and relinquish a coveted bargaining chip.