Source: CNN
A breakthrough. A stepping stone. A mistake.
However you see the upcoming meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, for tens of thousands of Koreans on both sides of the border it represents a last-ditch chance to see loved ones they haven’t heard from or seen since fighting in the Korean War ended in 1953.
Now in their eighties and nineties, time is running out for these men and women who hope the summit will lead to long-awaited reunions of families split by war and the division of North and South Korea.
Now 87, Kwon Moon-kook was just 19 when the war broke out in 1950 and he was separated from his parents and two younger brothers. He has not seen them since.
“There have been contacts between North and South in the past … I even started collecting used clothes to take to my siblings in North Korea at one point, but I ended up throwing them out,” Kwon told CNN.
Stories like Kwon’s are a bitter and cruel reminder of the human cost of a peninsula destroyed by war, divided by politicians and kept apart by dictators.
Categories: Asia, North Korea, South Korea