South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called on Thursday for the first family reunions with North Korea in three years, a day after the two nations agreed to reopen a joint industrial zone.
In a speech marking the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, Park urged Pyongyang to ‘open its heart’ and agree to a meeting next month for families left divided for decades by the Korean War.
The South Korean leader also welcomed Wednesday's agreement on the Kaesong industrial park, which she said could start ‘inter-Korea relations anew’ after months of sky-high tensions.
‘I hope that the North will open its heart so that the divided families can be reunited around the Chuseok holiday,’ Park said, referring to a traditional Korean harvest festival that this year falls on 19 September.
Millions of Koreans were left separated by the 1950-53 war. The last round of reunions to allow ageing relatives to meet under Red Cross auspices took place in 2010, when as in previous rounds there were scenes of high emotion. AGENCIES
About 72,000 South Koreans -- nearly half of them aged over 80 -- are still alive and waiting for a chance to join the highly competitive family reunion events, which select only up to a few hundred participants each time.
South Koreans are allowed only in very rare circumstances to cross the heavily militarised border.
‘I have so much hope this time,’ Song Il-Whan, a 77-year-old who was separated from his two siblings when he was 14, told Yonhap news agency.
‘Look how old I am now... I really wish I could meet them this time,’ said Song, adding he had been applying for the family reunion programme for the past 15 years with no success.
In a speech marking the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, Park urged Pyongyang to ‘open its heart’ and agree to a meeting next month for families left divided for decades by the Korean War.
The South Korean leader also welcomed Wednesday's agreement on the Kaesong industrial park, which she said could start ‘inter-Korea relations anew’ after months of sky-high tensions.
‘I hope that the North will open its heart so that the divided families can be reunited around the Chuseok holiday,’ Park said, referring to a traditional Korean harvest festival that this year falls on 19 September.
Millions of Koreans were left separated by the 1950-53 war. The last round of reunions to allow ageing relatives to meet under Red Cross auspices took place in 2010, when as in previous rounds there were scenes of high emotion. AGENCIES
About 72,000 South Koreans -- nearly half of them aged over 80 -- are still alive and waiting for a chance to join the highly competitive family reunion events, which select only up to a few hundred participants each time.
South Koreans are allowed only in very rare circumstances to cross the heavily militarised border.
‘I have so much hope this time,’ Song Il-Whan, a 77-year-old who was separated from his two siblings when he was 14, told Yonhap news agency.
‘Look how old I am now... I really wish I could meet them this time,’ said Song, adding he had been applying for the family reunion programme for the past 15 years with no success.