Temporary reunions of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War started on Monday at a mountain resort in North Korea, according to South Korean media, in the first such event in nearly three years.
Two rounds of reunions will be held at Mt. Kumgang on the southeastern coast of North Korea, with the first lasting from Monday to Wednesday and the second from Friday to Sunday.
Eighty-nine South Koreans who were accompanied by their family members arrived at the mountain resort shortly before 1 p.m. after leaving the South Korean city of Sokcho, near the border, in the morning, according to the South's Unification Ministry.
[Getty/Kyodo]
During their stay, the participants are scheduled to meet with their family members from the North on six occasions.
For the second round, 83 people picked by North Korea are scheduled to meet their family members from the South during the three-day period.
The two Koreas agreed to resume family reunions at the summit between their leaders in April.
South Korean President Moon Jae In said Monday that turning the temporary reunions into a regular event should be the top-priority task for the two Koreas to work together on.
"We really do not have much time," Moon said at a meeting with government officials, referring to the aging Koreans separated from their relatives during the war.
Reflecting the advancing age of those separated during the Korean War, most of the participants are aged 80 or older, according to the ministry.
(Left: Hwang U Sok)
Before leaving Sokcho for the reunion, one of the South Korean participants, 88-year-old Hwang U Sok, said he had not slept well the previous night in anticipation of his reunion with his daughter in the North.
Hwang was separated from her when she was 3. For the reunion, she will bring a daughter with her, he said, while predicting that this would be his only chance to see her again in his lifetime.
He said he intends to ask her about his parents, who died in the North.
Buses carrying the participants were seen off by South Korean officials, including Unification Minister Cho Myoung Gyon, in Sokcho, where the participants had gathered for the visit.
The first reunion event was held in 1985. The reunions were held more frequently after an inter-Korean summit in 2000. Reunion events, including those via video, involved over 20,000 Koreans from both sides between 2000 and 2015.
The previous reunion was held in October 2015. Such events were halted afterward as inter-Korean ties worsened in the wake of North Korea's fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in early 2016.
In the decades since the war ended in an armistice -- not a peace treaty -- more people on both sides died without being able to see their loved ones after being separated from them during the war.
Ministry data show that of those registered as members of separated families in the South, 56,890 were alive at the end of May.
The limited time left for the separated families has prompted the South Korean side to explore the possibility of holding reunions regularly.
Following a thaw in inter-Korean ties early this year, Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a summit at the Panmunjeom border village on April 27 and agreed to strive to declare a formal end to the war this year.
