Tears flow at reunion for divided Korean families

Lee Geum-seom, 92, who lives in South Korea, embraces her son Ri Sang-chol, 71, who lives in North Korea, after seeing him for the first time in 67 years at the 21st reunion for divided Korean families on Aug. 20 at the Mt. Kumgang meeting hall. (joint photo pool)

Heartwarming and heartbreaking scenes of families reunited after 67 years

The mother flung her arms around the son she had lost while fleeing from the fighting 67 years ago. “Sang-chol!” she cried, intoning the name of the boy she had missed for decades.

During the 21st reunion for families divided by the Korean War, which was held at Mt. Kumgang, in North Korea, on Aug. 20, 92-year-old Lee Geum-seom, who lives in South Korea, sobbed as she stroked the face of her 71-year-old son Ri Sang-chol, who lives in North Korea. Geum-seom’s family had been fleeing from the horrors of the war when she was separated from her husband and her four-year-old son.

“Mom, this is what Dad looked like, Sang-chol said, showing Geum-seom a picture of her husband, taken before he passed away. Sang-chol couldn’t stop the tears flowing from his eyes in apparent pity for the tragic lives of his father and mother, who had been divided, just like the Korean Peninsula itself.

“How many kids do you have?” the nonagenarian asked, rattling off a series of questions to satisfy the maternal curiosity she had carried around her entire life. Sitting there hand in hand, they shared their stories. But pitiless time passed by in the blink of an eye.

On Monday, which was the first day of the event, the South Korean participants comprising 197 people, representing 89 families, arrived at Mt. Kumkang. South Korean Han Shin-ja, a 99-year-old woman on the verge of her 100th birthday, was reunited with the daughters she had left behind in the North: 72-year-old Kim Gyong-sil and 71-year-old Kim Gyong-yong. When their mother approached, the North Korean sisters greeted her with a deep bow and burst into tears. At a loss for words, Shin-ja moaned and managed to say, “Goodness gracious!”

Liberated from Japan only to be divided by civil war

When Han fled during the war, she had only been able to take her youngest daughter, a newborn. She had left her older daughters, who were 4 and 5 years old at the time, in the care of her parents and aunt, thinking she would return in a few months. Guilt at the thought that she had orphaned her own children robbed her of sleep for countless nights. The afflictions of old age have left her hard of hearing for more than a decade now, and the cataracts in her eyes have dimmed her vision. Even so, she instantly recognized the faces and voices of her daughters.

South Korean Kim Hye-ja, 76, had already been talking with her North Korean younger brother Kim Eun-ha, 75, for five minutes when she finally broke down and cried. “It’s really you!”

After Korea was liberated from Japan’s colonial occupation, Hye-ja had followed their father to South Korea while Eun-ha had joined their mother at her parents’ house. When the war broke out, their separation became permanent. Eun-ha took out a photograph of their late mother and showed it to his sister. “That’s Mom! I feel so bad for Dad!”

When KBS was broadcasting a live show designed to reunite the divided families in 1983, Hye-ja showed up holding a sign in an attempt to find her family members. “It’s been 73 years now, since we were separated at liberation. You know, this is so great. Even when I was on my way, I was worried that it wouldn’t be you, but here you are!”

Lee Geum-seom, 92, who lives in South Korea, embraces her son Ri Sang-chol, 71, who lives in North Korea, after seeing him for the first time in 67 years at the 21st reunion for divided Korean families on Aug. 20 at the Mt. Kumgang meeting hall. (joint photo pool)

Blood runs deep

South Korean Kim Byeong-o, 88, and North Korean Kim Sun-ok, 81, who were separated while on their way to school with their knapsacks, were reunited after finishing respective careers as a school principal and a medical doctor. “After we were selected for the reunions, I couldn’t sleep a wink,” said Byeong-o, the older brother.

“Byeong-o, this is a photograph from when I was going to medical school. I’m a graduate of Pyongyang Medical University, and that’s brought me a ton of respect in Pyongyang. They even pay my gas bill each month. Sun-ok went on and on without a pause, as if she were attempting to make up for more than 65 years apart.

“It’s such an honor to hear that my little sister turned out so well. I was a high school teacher for thirty years and retired over a decade ago as a school principal,” Byeong-o said. The whole time they were looking at each other, the siblings never stopped smiling.

“There’s no hiding blood relations. You and I look just like peas in a pod. It would be so great if our country were reunited, Byeong-o. After unification, I’d be happy if we could just have a single minute to be together.”

As soon as North Korean Cho Jeong-il, 87, saw his South Korean younger brother Cho Jeong-hwan, 68, he began to weep. Jeong-il said he was “just glad to find out his little brother is still alive.”

Jeong-hwan hadn’t dared to request a reunion with his older brother. “Because my family members crossed the border into South Korea, I was worried that Jeong-il might run into trouble if we tried to find him,” he explained.

The little brother who was born the year the war broke out and whose name had been chosen by Jeong-il pulled out a family portrait. The photo was wrapped in thick plastic to prevent it from fading over the years.

“Look at the family resemblance! I look just like Dad,” Cho said, turning the photograph this way and that.

The first day of the 21st reunion for divided Korean families took place on Aug. 20 at North Korea’s Mt. Kumkang meeting hall. The above photo shows South Korean Cho Hye-do, 86, embrace her older sister from North Korea Cho Sun-do, 89. (joint photo pool)

During the reunions on Monday, family members from South and North Korea looked at photos and reflected on the past as they sought to find traces of their childhood in each other. When South Korean Kim Dal-in, 92, told his North Korean younger sister Kim Yu-deok, 85, that she had “gotten old,” Yu-deok’s eyes filled with tears. “The reason I lived this long was to see you, Dal-in,” she said.

South Korean Mun Hyeon-suk, 91, saw traces of his mother in his two North Korean little sisters. “When did you get so old? The child in you is mostly gone, now. Your eyes used to be so big, you know. You really looked like Mom,” Mun said.

“My beautiful sister has aged so much,” said 86-year-old Cho Hye-do with a laugh when he was reunited with his North Korean older sister Cho Sun-do. Hye-do went on: “Even so, I recognized you right away. You look the same as me.”

The following are scraps from other conversations: “I’m not sure if I’m awake or asleep.” “I’m so nervous that my leg is trembling.” “I postponed my daughter’s wedding to be here.”

At 8:35 am, the South Korean family members got aboard more than twenty buses, which took them to Mt. Kumgang over the East Sea overland route. After that, they participated in a group reunion and a welcome dinner, which was hosted by North Korea. Over dinner, when an elderly South Korean woman tried to lift her chopsticks with trembling fingers, her North Korean daughter deftly fed her a piece of fried chicken. Elsewhere in the room, brothers clinked glasses filed with Taedonggang Beer.

On Aug. 21, individual reunions will be held from 10 am to 1 pm at the Outer Kumgang Hotel.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [[e-mail]]