On Monday, October 26th, Korean families met again after having been separated for over sixty years in the South and North of the Peninsula, because of the fratricidal war that lasted from 1950 to 1953. Nearly 640 South Koreans and 330 North Koreans, divided into two groups, embraced each other and cried for a long time during the meeting held in the popular tourist resort of Mount Kumgang, in North Korea: the first group met from 20 to 22 October and the second group from the 24th to the 26th.
Most of the participants in these meetings were elderly, between 80 and 90 years of age. Today, the oldest person in South Korea is 98 years old and the eldest in North Korea is 88. The South Korean Koo Sang-yeon, 98, brought new shoes for his two daughters, Song-ok, 71, and Seon-ok, 68, to keep the promises made when they were still children. They cried a lot together during their historic meeting.
Lee Soon-kyu, 85, met her husband, Oh In-se, 83, who lives in North Korea, for the first time after six decades. Lee Suk-ju, 98, gave the black coat she was wearing to her son Dong-wook, aged 70, who also lives in North Korea. "Father, I beg you to live up to 130 years," he said in a loud voice. "I will live up to 100 years," Dong-wook answered as the time to say goodbye gradually approached.
This was the twentieth meeting of this kind. Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, approximately 19,800 family members from the two Koreas have been able to attend.
At present, more than 66,000 family members from South Korea remain separated by the Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the South and the North "technically" in a continuous state of war.
Their meetings have become particularly urgent as most of the surviving family members are now 80 years old or more. About half of the approximately 130,000 South Koreans on the waiting list for the meetings have already died. This fact should make these events more frequent and regular.
Each day, all the South Korean media gave much space to news reports on the meeting. All these initiatives for the reunification of the families that are still separated are also supported by the Church, as She constantly strives to make the life of the Korean people truly more human and continues to be deeply inspired by the words Pope Francis pronounced at the end of his historic visit to Korea: "All the Koreans are brothers and sisters, members of one family and one people" (Homily at the Mass in the Cathedral Myeong-dong, 18 August 2014). At the Mass for the reconciliation of the Korean people, celebrated on 6 January in the Cathedral Myeong-dong, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishop of Seoul, insisted on the need for this meeting in his homily, saying: "Family members are separated and very elderly persons are dying without seeing their families. Making their meeting possible without any condition is a human duty. The natural law is God's will."
THOMAS HANN
