Divided Koreans meet after decades of separation

A rare period of détente between North and South Korea saw a poignant reunion of scores of elderly North and South Koreans, before they part again in a few days, possibly for ever.

About 80 South Koreans made their way through snow to North Korea's Kumgang Mountain resort to meet children, brothers, sisters, spouses and other relatives. According to Seoul about 180 North Koreans were expected.

South Korean television showed women in brightly coloured traditional hanbok dresses talking and hugging, and families exchanging photographs of relatives who could not make it or were dead. Two brothers hugged each other and pressed their foreheads together as photographers clicked away.

The meetings the first in three years, underline the fact that despite 60 years of hostility, the most heavily armed border in the world divides a single people.

The reunions came in the wake of impoverished North Korea pushing for better ties with South Korea. According to analysts, from outside the Koreas it was an attempt to win badly needed foreign investment and aid.

Several Koreans at the event had come in wheel chairs and a few in stretchers. However, the reunion also ironically served to highlight the fact that members of many divided families would not see each other before they die.

Over half of the South Koreans registered for the Red Cross-run reunions through lottery had died waiting, with 3,800 dying in 2013 alone.

Voice of America, quoted Lilian Lee with the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights saying that for the reuniting families, this was their only chance.

She added, it this chance was not taken then they would never see them again.

She added, on the other hand the family reunions were very often used as political tools by both the North and South Korean governments and that perspective was not very fruitful to the North Korean human rights situation in general.

The two Koreas had till date had held 18 rounds of reunions since 1985, reuniting over 20,000 relatives in person and by video link. North Korea though had refused to make them regular and had postponed the events at least four times, most recently in September.

Many feared another postponement by North Korea after it demanded an end to US-South Korea military drills that started Monday.

However, according to Seoul, it convinced Pyongyang to separate the two issues and proceed with the meetings.