LEAD) Families of two Koreas continue reunions, prepare for farewells

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MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of South and North
Koreans on Sunday spent time with long-lost family members on the second day of
the first crossborder reunions in nearly two years, but the jubilant air was
overshadowed by the inevitable farewells that lie ahead of them.

On Saturday, 97 South Koreans traveled across the Demilitarized Zone and met
relatives from whom they had been separated by the 1950-53 Korean war at the
Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea's east coast. More than three-quarters of the
participants were 70 or older.
The families will separate again Monday after their three-day reunion. A second
segment of the event will begin Tuesday at the same venue, also over three-days,
where 99 North Koreans will reunite with 449 relatives living in the South.
The reunions 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. The agreement stands as
one of the highlights 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.
The private meetings began at around 8:50 a.m. and was held separately at private
rooms at a hotel run by Hyundai Asan, the North Korean arm of Hyundai Group.
The participants, who shed tears of both joy and grief on the previous day when
meeting their relatives for the first time in more than a decade, largely seemed
to savor the second day, catching up with each other through sharing their life
stories and photos.
Hyundai Asan, operator of the tourism facility at Mount Kumgang, operated a
special print station for digital cameras brought by South Korean participants.
The families relayed the photos taken on Saturday to their relatives for them to
deliver those to others that couldn't take part in the reunions.
Some, however, failed to hide their concerns of the inevitable separations ahead
of them for Monday.
"I thought I could sleep well last night, but I couldn't. I'm worried that his
face seems to bear some worries," said Roh Soon-ho, a 60-year old South Korean
told reporters while appearing somber at the private meeting with her younger
brother Roh Sung-ho. Sung-ho, 58, who was taken by the North in 1987 after his
ship drifted into North Korean waters.
"My brother says that he graduated from college and that he's got a decent job
but it struck to me that he may have said those words to make me feel good," the
sister said.
Lee Jung-ho, a 76 year-old South Korean, brought along a bottle of liquor from
the South as a gift to his older brother Kwae-seok, who was taken to the North at
the outbreak of the Korean War. The brother declined the gift, but told Jung-ho
to lay it at the grave of their deceased mother in the South.
"Please deliver my prayers to mother," Lee Kwae-seok was quoted as saying by his
brother.
"Mother would be happy (knowing that her elder son is alive)," Lee Jung-ho, 76,
told reporters, adding that he will grant his brother's wish and present the
liquor at their mother's grave.
The younger brother voluntarily joined the military in 1952 and served for 12
years just to find the whereabouts of his brother. In 1960, the South Korean
military concluded that Kwae-seok died during battle. His family found out just
three months ago that he has been living in North Korea all these years.
Meanwhile, 75-year-old Yoo Jae-bok from the South returned across the border at
around 1:40 p.m. and was taken to a hospital in Sokcho after she fell while
walking on a staircase in the North. She suffered from minor external injuries
and did not appear to be in any critical condition but hospital officials said
they plan to conduct a more through examination.
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.
Candidates from the South were first selected through a computer lottery, with
the final lists being drawn from applicants whose relatives were located, giving
priority to immediate family members and the elderly.
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.
The mood further chilled in July last year after a North Korean soldier in the
Mount Kumgang resort area shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had strayed
into an off-limits military zone.
North Korea has asked the South whether it is willing to extend a "good-will"
measure toward the North in response to ongoing reunions of separated families,
according to Seoul's Red Cross chief Yoo Chong-ha, who was accompanying the South
Korean families in the North.
Yoo told pool reporters that his North Korean counterpart, Jang Jae-on, presented
an indirect request for South Korean rice and fertilizer aid in Saturday's
banquet held alongside the reunion event at this North Korean mountain resort.
Seoul's Lee Myung-bak government brought to a halt a decade of unconditional rice
and fertilizer aid as it came to power last year, taking a tougher stance on the
North's nuclear program.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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