For many separated Korean families, reunion event comes too late

SEOUL. KAZINFORM For Chung Hak-soon, it feels just like yesterday when she recalls the days she was together with her brother before they were separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

It must have been a lifetime dream for the 81-year-old woman to meet her brother in North Korea again. But it is too late to realize it as the sibling she loved already passed away years ago, Joint Press Corps-Yonhap reports.

One consolation is that she is to meet the family of her late brother for the first time in the upcoming family reunion event to be held this week.

"I really wished to see even the face of my brother, but the reunion has come too late," Chung lamented.

Chung is one of 89 South Koreans chosen to take part in the family reunion event to be held from Monday to next Sunday at a Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast.

The reunion is a rare occasion for those who had sought in vain for decades to see their families in the North.

This week's event is the first of its kind since October 2015. The two Koreas have held just 20 rounds of face-to-face family reunions since the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000.

The 89 people fortunately chosen to join this week's event represent just a small fraction of about 57,000 people waiting to meet their loved ones in the North again.

The problem is that many of them are in their 70s or older, meaning the window of opportunity is fast closing down for their dreams to meet their parents, brothers and sisters again before they die.

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