S. Koreans Head For Family Reunions In North After Decades Apart

Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans set off for the North Monday to meet relatives for the first time since the peninsula and their families were divided by war nearly seven decades ago.

Sokcho, South Korea, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Aug, 2018 ) :Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans set off for the North Monday to meet relatives for the first time since the peninsula and their families were divided by war nearly seven decades ago.

The three-day reunion -- the first for three years -- will take place at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort in North Korea, following a rapid diplomatic thaw between the neighbours.

Millions of people were swept apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, which separated brothers and sisters, parents and children and husbands and wives.

Hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war and the peninsula split by the impenetrable Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), with all direct civilian exchanges -- even mundane family news -- banned.

The 89 ageing South Koreans, dressed in their best suits in the scorching sun, hobbled one by one to 14 coaches in Sokcho -- wheelchairs alongside the vehicles -- some excited with others in disbelief, before the convoy set off, escorted by police and medical personnel.

Among the relatives was Lee Keum-seom, now a tiny and frail 92, who was to see her son for the first time since she and her infant daughter were separated from him and her husband as they fled.

At the time the boy was aged just four. He is now 71.

"I never imagined this day would come," Lee said. "I didn't even know if he was alive or not."