Seoul seeks to regularize family reunions

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The Republic of Korea (ROK) will continue its efforts to hold reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on a regular basis in a bid to better address humanitarian issues arising from decades of division, the Unification Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said that it will hold consultations with Pyongyang to regularize family reunion events, locate long-lost families and allow people to visit their hometowns on the other side, according to a Yonhap report.

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ROK's Yoo Gwean-sik, 89, looks at his 67-year-old daughter Yoo Yeon Ok at a banquet at Kumgang Mountain Hotel in the DPRK's Kumgang Mountain resort, Aug 20, 2018. /VCG Photo

Currently, 89 elderly from the South are at Mount Kumgang, a resort on the east coast of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), for a three-day reunion with their relatives from the North.

The family reunion is the first of its kind since October 2015. It came after an agreement reached between DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and ROK President Moon Jae-in during a summit in April.

ROK'S Lee Keum-seom, 92, meets her son Ri Sung Chol (2nd L) from the North, 71, during a separated family reunion meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North's southeastern coast, Aug 20, 2018. /VCG Photo

After the three-day reunions that end on Wednesday, 83 people from the North will meet their relatives found to be alive in the South from Friday to Sunday. Over 300 people will travel to the venue from the South later this week for the event, Yonhap said.

The Unification Ministry also said they are working on the date for the third summit between Moon and Kim in Pyongyang next month, and that they will soon hold working-level meetings with officials from the North to work out such details as protocol and security.