Koreans reunited with long-lost relatives

An emotional reunion: Lee Duck-sung, left, and his sister, Lee Won-hae.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Emotions ran high as nearly 100 elderly South Koreans were reunited with their relatives in North Korea for the first time in half a century.

The reunions were the culmination of an agreement between the politically divided Korean peninsula neighbours, after similar exchange programmes were suspended by the North.

The joyous reunion scenes that were broadcast on television were sometimes tempered by sad news or uncertainty over the future.

South Korean Lee Bu-ja broke down in tears when she met her older sister in North Korea for the first time on Sunday and told her that their mother had died two days ago.

Their mother, 93-old Uh Byung-soon, was one of 99 South Koreans picked to visit North Korea for three days of temporary reunions with their North Korean kins at a mountain resort on the North's east coast, The Associated Press reported.

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She died Friday after a long illness. On behalf of the deceased mother, her youngest daughter, Lee Bu-ja, 62, visited the North to meet her second oldest daughter, Lee Shin Ho, 67.

"Sister Shin Ho! Sister Shin Ho! You are alive," Bu-ja cried, tears flowing down her face. "Until the moment of her death, our mother could never close her eyes peacefully without seeing you."

Married couple at odds

It was the fourth such reunion since a historic 2000 inter-Korean summit improved relations between the rival nations, which share the world's most heavily armed border.

Shin Ho went missing shortly after the Korean War broke out in 1950. The family had not heard from her until Red Cross officials told them in September that she was alive in the North.

This latest reunion was the start of revived reconciliation between the two Koreas after months of tensions. It was broadcast live to South Korea. No foreign reporters were allowed to visit the North.

Chung Gwi-up, 75, from South Korea met her husband, Lim Han Un, 74, who went missing shortly after the war started. Lim was remarried in the North and has five children.

"I heard that you had a mistress when you were living with me. Isn't she your wife? Did you bring her with you here?" teary Chung accused her long-lost husband, holding his hands.

Her husband denied the allegation with a smile, saying "No. No. You have it all wrong."

When the South Korean visitors return home on Tuesday, a group of 474 South Koreans will depart for the resort the next day for similar reunions with 100 North Korean relatives. The reunions are to be staged alternately due to limited accommodation at the North Korean mountain resort.

Economic gulf

An unidentified South Korean, center, meets his North Korean relatives in the reunion at Diamond Mountain resort

South Korean Red Cross officials said the relatives from the two sides will be allowed to spend a total of 12 hours together meeting individually or as groups or sightseeing.

The reunions were originally scheduled for October, but Pyongyang abruptly called off the plan after South Korea put its security forces on alert following the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Ties warmed again after a South Korean envoy visited North Korea in early April and agreed to restart stalled exchanges, including the family reunion project.

Previous reunions took place in the two Korean capitals -- Seoul and Pyongyang.

The new location is a concession by South Korea and eased North Korean fears of its citizens seeing prosperous South Korea. The North's economic plight was highlighted again by the arrival in Seoul Sunday of two North Koreans via Singapore after seeking asylum at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing two days earlier.

A total of 583 North Koreans defected to South Korea, mostly via China, in 2001, up from 312 in 2000, 148 in 1999 and 71 in 1998.

Reunions of separated family members are a pressing issue because most of them are old and don't have long to live. More than 12,000 elderly South Koreans who had registered for reunions have died in the past year.

About 1.2 million North Koreans fled to South Korea before or during the Korean War, and thousands of South Koreans are believed to have gone to the North voluntarily or after being conscripted into the North's army.

The war ended in an uneasy truce, and the border has been sealed ever since. There is no mail, telephone or other direct means of communications between ordinary citizens of the two Koreas.