1 of 2 | South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (C) met with people who were displaced during the 1950-53 Korean War at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon on Friday. Lee called for North Korea to resume separated family reunions at the meeting. Pool Photo by Yonhap/EPA
SEOUL, Oct. 3 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday called for North Korea to allow families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to hold reunions or exchange letters.
Lee made the remarks while meeting with elderly citizens who had relatives in the North ahead of Chuseok, the mid-autumn festival that is one of Korea’s most important holidays.
“I strongly urge the North to consider these unfortunate circumstances from a humanitarian perspective,” Lee said at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon, which overlooks North Korea.
“I believe that it is the responsibility of all political leaders in both the South and the North to ensure that these tragically separated families can confirm the fate of their relatives and, at the very least, exchange letters,” he said, according to his office. He added that the families should ideally be able to meet again in person.
North and South Korea have held 21 family reunions since 2000, with the last one taking place in August 2018 during a period of inter-Korean detente.
Relations have frozen over for the past several years, however, and time is not on the side of the family members who are still hoping to connect with their long-lost relatives.
Over 134,000 South Koreans have registered to participate in family reunions since 1988, but only 35,311 were still alive as of August, according to data from the South’s Unification Ministry. Some two-thirds of people on the list are over the age of 80.
In February, North Korea began dismantling the facility used for family reunions at its Mount Kumgang tourist zone, a further sign of deteriorating relations.
Lee’s administration has made efforts to reduce tensions between the two Koreas since he took office in June, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.
In an address to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Lee unveiled a peace initiative that seeks engagement and normalization with the North.