Koreas exchange list of surviving separated families By Kim Bo-eun

Officials of the South and North exchange lists of surviving separated families, at the truce village of Panmunjeom on Wednesday. / Courtesy of Unification Ministry

South and North Korea exchanged lists of surviving separated families Wednesday, at the truce village of Panmunjeom, ahead of scheduled reunions next month.

Through the Red Cross, the South delivered its list of South Koreans with living relatives in the North, and the North gave its list of North Koreans with living relatives in the South.

The Koreas exchanged requests to check surviving members on July 3, and the South Korean government conducted a search over the past 22 days. Out of the 200 people North Korea inquired, the South confirmed that 122 are alive and seven passed away. Among the 250 the South inquired, the North confirmed 122 are alive and 41 passed away.

One hundred people each from the South and North will take part in the reunion to take place from Aug. 20 to Aug. 26 at Mount Geumgang in the North. The final list of participants will be exchanged Aug. 4.

Once the participants are fixed, a South Korean team will head to Mount Geumgang Aug. 15 to make preparations for the event.

However, North Korean media brought up the issue of its restaurant workers in the South the same day.

“If the issue of repatriating the female workers is not resolved, then an obstacle could be created in not only reunions of separated family members, but also in overall inter-Korean relations,” North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri stated.

Last week, North Korean media demanded the repatriation of the restaurant workers, threatening to cancel the reunion if they are not.

Twelve North Koreans who worked at a restaurant in China came to the South in April 2016. The South Korean government has maintained that this was a defection, but recent revelations cast doubt on whether all of them knowingly came to South Korea.

The scheduled family reunion in August is one of the agreements in the Panmunjeom Declaration reached at the inter-Korean summit in April.

It will be the first reunion to be held in almost three years since the last in October 2015. Reunions haven’t been held since then due to strained ties.

It had been a pressing humanitarian issue as most of the people who were separated from their families by the war are now in their 70s or older.

More than half of over 131,531 people registered on the separated family list with the South Korean government have died. The past 20 reunions held since 2000 have enabled 20,000 people to meet with long-lost relatives, but this is only about 15 percent of the total number registered.

To find surviving separated families for the upcoming reunion, 500 people in the South were randomly selected by computer among those registered, and the number was narrowed to 250 based on people’s willingness to take part, as well as their health. These 250 names were submitted to the North earlier to see if their relatives were still alive. The North also had submitted 200 names to the South to see if they had living relatives here.

Source:koreatimes.co.kr