Families at second round of 21st divided family reunion say their final farewell

A South Korean man says goodbye to family members before they head back to North Korea on the final day of the second round of the 21st reunion for divided Korean families on Aug. 26 at Mt. Kumgang Hotel. (photo pool)

Event filled with tears and hopes for a chance to meet again

“Please stay healthy!” “We must meet again!”

These were the words exchanged most often by South and North Korean parents, siblings, and relatives at the second-floor banquet hall at the Mt. Kumgang Hotel during their farewell meetings on Aug. 26. After waiting lifetimes for three days of encounters, they once again had to say goodbye.

For these divided family members – most of them in their seventies to nineties, some as old as 100 – their earnest wish was for the same thing. During their final three hours together, which included a joint luncheon, they held hands, embraced, and let out the tears they had been holding back. Some families looked over the photos they had taken together over the past several days; others took one more image to remember the occasion after their return.

Two sisters who have been separated for the last 65 years wept as they faced another parting.

“Will we ever have the chance to meet again?” asked the South Korean sister, Park Yu-hee, 83.

“This is terrible. We’re family, and we can’t even see each other,” she said, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. Her North Korean sister, Park Young-hee, 85, quietly comforted her.

“Once unification comes. . . ,” she said.

“What if you die before then?” the younger Park said.

“I’m not going to die,” her sister reassured her. “I won’t die.”

Nonchalant during the preceding group meeting, North Korean Jong Song-gi, 89, and his South Korean younger sister Young-gi, 84, began to weep the moment they met on the last day. “Oh no. No, no,” cried the younger Jong. “The day has finally come.” “I’m so sorry,” said her brother as he wiped her tears with a handkerchief. The scene had even the North Korean support staff tearing up as they looked on.

North Korean U Ki-bok, 86, held the hands of her sister Ki-ju, 79, as the two looked at each other in front of a table laid out with snacks.

“Will we ever meet again?” the South Korean younger sister asked. “Please stay healthy.”

“We must meet again,” she added tearfully, as her North Korean sister nodded silently.

Letters to those who couldn’t make it

Some of the family members exchanged letters to share the joy of their reunion and the pain of their parting. Pyeon Chan-ok, 76, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, wrote a letter for his older brother Chan-gyu, 88, to give to his nieces and nephews in North Korea. The stiffness in his hands made it physically difficult for him to write out the words in the letter. “I’m really grateful that I could see you like this,” he told his brother.

Ri Suk-hui, 92, gave her younger sister Yong-hee, 89, a letter to give to their South Korean cousin, who could not attend the reunion event because of ill health. The two of them grew up together, she explained, and she missed the cousin terribly.

After a sole meeting between father and son, Cho Jeong-gi, 67, said, “I thought [my father] had passed away. Now that I’ve seen his face, I’ve fulfilled my mother’s lifelong wish on her behalf, so things are okay now.”

South Korean Park Chun-ja, 77, (right), cherishes her time with her North Korean sister Park Bong-ryol, 85, on Aug. 25, the second day of the second round of the 21st reunion for divided Korean families, at Mt. Kumgang Hotel. The two sisters were reunited for the first time in 66 years. (photo pool)

A father sees his son for the first time

Cho’s mother passed away after 68 years of waiting for her husband to return from the North. Meeting his son for the first time, Cho Tok-yong, 88, explained all about the reasons behind his decision to travel to the North.

“My father told me everything,” the son said. “I understand now.”

Lee In-sook, 82, said she was feeling “every kind of emotion” as she prepared to say goodbye to her North Korean older sister Hyon-suk, 86.

“This kind of moment won’t come again,” she lamented.

North Korean Park Yong-hwan, 85, grabs the hand of his older sister Park Bong-lim, 89, who lives in South Korea. (photo pool)

The North Korean reunion participants were the first to leave the hall. Their steps were heavier as they descended the same 34 steps they had ascended briskly that morning to see the South Korean relatives waiting there for them. In and around the four buses preparing to carry the North Korean participants back, people shed tears as they said goodbye for what might be the last time.

“Let’s meet again,” some said. “Thank you for seeing me, and for staying healthy.” “Please live a long time.” Some family members bowed behind the parting buses.

The South Korean group – including 324 participants from 81 families taking part in the three-day second round of the 21st inter-Korean divided family reunions at Mt. Kumgang – departed at around 1:20 the same afternoon. It marked the end of an encounter like something out of a dream.

　

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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