Roundup: Hundreds of S. Koreans head to DPRK for family reunion

Hundreds of South Koreans, luckily selected to attend a reunion for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, tossed and turned or stayed all night in excitement and anticipation for meeting their long-lost relatives from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

A fleet of buses carrying 389 elderly South Koreans and their companions from 96 families left at around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday (2330 GMT Monday) from Sokcho city in the country's northeast coast to take part in the family reunion, according to Seoul's unification ministry.

The family members spent last night at a resort in Sokcho near the demilitarized zone, which has divided the two Koreas since the fratricidal war ended in 1953, to receive medical check-ups and education about dos and don'ts during their three-day stay in the North.

"I stayed all night in an excited heart," said Lee Ok-Yeon who was forcibly separated from her husband during the Korean War, according to a pool report. "I'm so grateful for families in the North seeking to find and see me," she wept.

A total of 141 DPRK people reunite with their families in the South at the humanitarian event, which will run from Tuesday to Thursday at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort in the DPRK's southeastern coast.

The second round of the gathering, for which 255 South Koreans meet their 188 DPRK relatives, will be held for three days from Saturday.

The participants are scheduled to meet their long-lost relatives at about 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) for the first time in more than six decades during the first day's two-hour gathering in public. Since the end of the Korean conflict, no exchanges of letters and telephone calls have been allowed among people of the two Koreas.

Only six meetings both in public and in private, including lunch and dinner gatherings as well as the last farewell meeting on the third day, are scheduled for the divided families, meaning they can only meet for 12 hours after six decades of separation.

The Oct. 20-26 event was agreed in late August during talks between top-level military advisors to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un to lower tensions that had pushed the two Koreas to the brink of armed conflict.

It was only the second in the past five years, with the latest being held in February 2014. More than 65,000 South Koreans are on the waiting list for the reunion, with a vast majority of them failing to have a chance to meet their family members in the North.

After a historic summit between the two Koreas in 2000 in Pyongyang, thousands of the separated families met at the 19 rounds of reunion events, but it stopped far short of demand from the elderly, mostly in their 80s and 90s.

The 16 buses, which carried the elderly South Koreans heading to the Mount Kumgang resort, were trailed by five ambulances for emergencies due to their advanced age and infirmity. Scores of participants were in wheelchairs, two were carried by ambulances and one wore an oxygen mask, according to the pool report.

South Korea called on the DPRK to hold regular reunions, but Pyongyang has been mum about it. South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo said in Sokcho Monday that the government will make best efforts for regular reunions through dialogue with the DPRK. Enditem