 |
| ▲ This file photo, taken Sept. 8, 2022, shows an official at the Korean Red Cross checking a collection of video messages by South Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The video letters were produced for delivery to the separated families' kin in North Korea. (Yonhap) |
S Korea-separated families
S. Korea to hold survey on separated families next year
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- The unification ministry said Tuesday it plans to conduct a survey on the fate of South Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War next year, two years earlier than its original schedule, as more aging Koreans have passed away.
Under the law, the government is supposed to carry out the survey on separated families in 2026, but it has decided to advance the schedule to 2024, according to the ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs.
The ministry will also push to conduct such a survey every three years from the current cycle of every five years, as more elderly people have died without having a chance to meet their long-lost relatives in North Korea.
In South Korea, 133,970 have applied for family reunions. Among them, 93,871 have already died, according to the ministry.
The number of such surviving separated family members came to 40,099 as of the end of last month, with 65.7 percent of the total aged 80 and older, it showed.
North Korea has snubbed Seoul's call to resume separated family reunions amid frosty inter-Korean relations. Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two Koreas have held 21 rounds of face-to-face family reunions, including the latest one in August 2018.
There are no direct means of contact between ordinary civilians of the two countries that remain divided by a heavily fortified border.
The inter-Korean border has been sealed since the 1950-53 Korean War, and no South Koreans or North Koreans can visit the other side without government approval, which is rarely given.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
