Cascades of tears. Lingering hugs. Family photos. And questions that have burned unanswered for decades.
For the first time in three years, North and South Korea are holding family reunions, allowing a small number of South Koreans to travel across the fortified border to the North to reunite with loved ones they haven't seen since the 1950s.
Such reunions have been held intermittently since the '80s and have resumed as relations between the North and South are thawing.
For the families involved, it's an extraordinary moment. In general, there is no contact permitted between North Koreans and South Koreans, and many members of separated families do not even know if their relatives across the border are still alive.
The Associated Press reported from Seoul:
Many of the reunions involve elderly family members reuniting with siblings; few parents are still living to be reunited with their children.
Reuters reports that some of the reunified relatives struggle to recognize their family members:
Before the reunions were held, NPR's Michael Sullivan and Se Eun Gong spoke to several South Koreans who were preparing for the visit.
Ahn Seung-Choon was 14 when her 17-year-old brother was taken by North Korean soldiers. She later fled south with her mother, who did not survive the trip. Sullivan and Gong report:
Ahn traveled north to meet her nephew, saying, "I should go see him before I die."
This week, 93 families were supposed to be reunited, but four families had to cancel because of poor health, Reuters reports, citing the Red Cross. All told, some 330 South Koreans are meeting 185 North Koreans, the wire service says.
The families will be meeting for 11 hours, spread out over three days.
A second round of reunions will be held Thursday, according to Reuters, with 88 more families involved.
On Morning Edition on Friday, Sullivan noted that 75,000 South Koreans have died while waiting for the chance to see their family members.
"The lucky ones are the ones who have been reunited," he said. "But the rest who are still waiting, we don't know what's going to happen to them."
The AP reports that North Korea is "reluctant to accept calls for more reunions."
"Analysts say it sees the reunions as an important bargaining chip and believes more reunions would give its people a better awareness of the outside world," the news service writes. "While South Korea uses a computerized lottery to pick participants for the reunions, North Korea is believed to choose based on loyalty to its authoritarian leadership."
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