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South Korea Gives Aid to North Amid Family Reunions
South Korea Aids North As Families Are Reunited
(about 17 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Friday approved a shipment of $988,000 worth of medicine and powdered milk for North Korea and promised more humanitarian aid as the two Koreas continued emotional reunions of families separated by the Korean War six decades ago.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Friday approved a shipment of $988,000 worth of medicine and powdered milk for North Korea and promised more humanitarian aid as the two Koreas continued the emotional reunions of families separated by the Korean War six decades ago.
The Seoul government’s approval of the aid shipment by two civic relief groups came a day after the two countries began the family reunions in an event widely seen as easing tensions on the divided peninsula. President Park Geun-hye has promised to increase humanitarian aid if the North improves ties with the South through “trust-building” projects like family reunions, which were last held more than three years ago.
The Seoul government’s approval of the aid shipment by two civic relief groups came a day after the two countries began the reunions in an event widely seen as easing tensions on the divided peninsula. President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has promised to increase humanitarian aid if the North improves ties through “trust building” projects like the family reunions, which were last held more than three years ago.
The family meetings, held in the Diamond Mountain resort in southeast North Korea, highlighted the urgency for such reunions for Korea’s “separated families,” which were torn apart during the three-year war that ended in 1953 with the peninsula still divided.
South Korea drastically cut its once bountiful aid to the impoverished North in recent years as South Koreans — and more conservative presidents — grew frustrated that Pyongyang continued provocations and its nuclear weapons program despite years of aid and investment.
Several of the aging South Koreans selected for this week’s reunions had died or become too weak to make the trip to the North Korean resort on Thursday. One of them, Seo Jong-suk, 90, died on Feb. 5, the day the rival Korean governments agreed to the reunions. She knew of the deal when she was wheeled into a hospital for heart surgery that she did not survive.
Relations between the two countries reached a particular low point last year as the North’s new leader threatened war after sanctions were passed to punish his government for a nuclear test. But in recent weeks, both sides have been inching closer to warmer relations. The reunions, the 19th since 2000, are considered an important measure of that change and each time bring together a small number of the tens of thousands of Koreans waiting to see loved ones living over the border.
On Friday, her North Korean daughter Kim Young-sil, 67, cried over her mother’s photo, which was brought by her South Korean sister, Kim Yong-ja, 68.
In the chaos of the war that left the country divided between a communist north and capitalist south, many families became permanently separated, unable to even communicate by mail or phone, leaving many without information on whether relatives were alive or dead.
Twenty-five of the 82 who made the cross-border trip to Diamond Mountain on Thursday were in their 90s. Several were too ill to recognize the North Korean children they had wished to see before they died. Some were hard of hearing, forcing their North Korean children and siblings to communicate by writing.
On Friday, the sadness inherent in the reunions — which last only a few days and each time end with the families separating again — came into sharp focus. Two of the older participants from South Korea had to leave the reunion held at the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea early because their health was failing.
A few were so frail that they could only meet their relatives while lying in ambulances. One of them, Kim Seom-gyeong, 91, had said he would go to Diamond Mountain to see his North Korean children even if he died there. He did make the trip and met his son and daughter. On Friday, South Korean media carried photos of the North Korean son, Kim Jin-chon, 66, leaning over Mr. Kim in the ambulance bed to catch his father’s last words.
One of them, Kim Seom-gyeong, 91, had said he would go to Diamond Mountain to see his North Korean children even if he died there. He made the trip and met his son and daughter. On Friday, South Korean news media ran photos of the North Korean son, Kim Jin-chon, 66, leaning over Mr. Kim in an ambulance to catch his father’s words before he headed home.
But Mr. Kim and another South Korean, Hong Sin-ja, 84, had to cut their reunions short and were brought back to the South in their ambulances because of their failing health. Their reunions were scheduled to last through Saturday morning.
Another South Korean, Hong Sin-ja, 84, also had to cut her reunion short.
“I wish I could take her with me,” Ms. Hong was quoted as saying by South Korean media pool reports, referring to her North Korean sister, Yong-ok, 82. Ms. Hong traveled to Diamond Mountain 10 days after a back surgery.
“I wish I could take her with me,” Ms. Hong was quoted as saying by South Korean pool reports, referring to her North Korean sister, Yong-ok, 82. “Please stay alive until reunification,” the North Korean sister said.
“Please stay alive until reunification,” the North Korean sister said.
Another North Korean sister, Young-ja, 83, tried to grab the ambulance as it took her South Korean sister away.
Millions of Korean families were separated during the war. The rival governments have banned exchanges of letters, telephone calls or emails. Occasional reunions they arranged were about the only chance for separated families to meet relatives.
In each of the 19 rounds of reunions since 2000, only a few hundreds elderly Koreans were selected. South Korea chose them by lottery. Of those elderly South Koreans on a waiting list, 3,800 die each year. About 71,000 South Koreans — 53 percent of them 80 or older — remain on the waiting list.
Many of them have described being selected in the government lottery as winning their life’s last “jackpot.”
