Present conditions and history of inter-Korean family reunions

One of the most anticipated topics of today's inter-Korean Red Cross talks is the reunion of separated families.
If things go well, families from the two Koreas will be given a chance to see each other again on August 15th, as agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration.
Kim Mok-yeon reports.
The history of separated families on the Korean peninsula stretches back to the Korean War in the 1950s.
Millions of people were separated from their loved ones, with many not even having a chance to say a proper goodbye.
But with the efforts of the Red Cross from both sides, the first historic reunion was realized in 1985 when Seoul and Pyongyang held performances on the sidelines of the 40th Independence Day celebration, allowing some 30 citizens from each country to meet their war-torn families.
And 15 years later in 2000, state-run reunion events and exchanges between families officially kicked off, after the two Koreas agreed to cooperate on humanitarian issues at the June 15 inter-Korean summit.
The first historic reunion was held on August 15 that year, and was followed by another 19 face-to-face reunion events over the next 15 years, allowing nearly 20 thousand members of some 4,100 families to see each other again.
Aside from face-to-face meetings, other types of exchanges such as seven video reunions and 600 letter exchanges have also been made.
However, since 2015, such reunion activities have stalled…and South Korea has been calling for an urgent revival of the reunion events since last year,... as there may not be much time left for some of these families.

As of the end of May, almost 57 percent of the estimated 130 thousand family members on the waiting list for reunions have died, with more than 85 percent of the remaining survivors aged above 70 years old.

The North, meanwhile, had been demanding the repatriation of 12 female North Koreans, who worked at a restaurant in China and came to the South in 2016, as a condition for the resumption of the event.
But with the thawing of relations between the two sides lately, and with President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreeing on the Panmunjom Declaration, there are high expectations that the family reunions will resume this year.

Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.