Reunions of separated Korean families continue for 2nd day

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of separated South and
North Korean families were given private sessions to share stories among
themselves Sunday, the second day of the government-arranged reunions, which came
after two years as one of the most visible reconciliatory steps between the
neighboring nations.

Ninety-seven South Koreans traveled across the Demilitarized Zone the previous
day to meet relatives from whom they had been separated by the 1950-53 Korean
War, at the Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea's east coast, according to pool
reports. More than three-quarters of the participants were 70 or older.
The families will separate again Monday after their brief three-day reunion.
During the second segment of the event, which will begin Tuesday at the same
venue, 99 North Koreans will reunite with 449 relatives living in the South.
About 600,000 people in the South are believed to have family in the North. The
first round of cross-border reunions was held in 1985, and they had become a
semi-regular event since 2000 after a historic inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
They were halted in 2007 as inter-Korean ties began to fray.
The reunions this time came as a result of a dramatic agreement last month
between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of South
Korea's Hyundai Group -- a major investor in the cash-strapped nation.
They are also a highlight of the North's recent good-will gestures, which
included the easing of cross-border traffic to and from a South Korean-run
industrial park in Kaesong, North Korea.
Inter-Korean tensions mounted after the conservative government of President Lee
Myung-bak came to power in the South last year. Lee toughened up on the North's
nuclear drive and suspended massive aid, and in response North Korea boycotted
dialogue and suspended the family reunions.
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