Tears as Korean families reunite

HUNDREDS of Korean family members separated for more than half a century by the Korean War hugged and embraced each other in tearful reunions yesterday, a day after troops exchanged gunfire in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the countries.

"I thought you were dead. Mother missed you so much," 61-year-old South Korean Lee Min-gwan told his 90-year-old North Korean father, Ri Jong Ryol.

Lee was among 436 South Koreans who travelled by bus to North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort yesterday to take part in the three-day reunions with about 100 North Korean relatives.

The event is the first in a two-part series of reunions. On Wednesday, about 200 North Koreans are to begin similar three-day reunions with their South Korean relatives at the same resort.

Millions of Korean families were separated after the Korean peninsula's division in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War.

The reunions are emotional for Koreans, as most participants are elderly and are eager to see loved ones before they die. More than 20,800 family members have had brief reunions in face-to-face meetings or by video since a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000. There are no mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges between ordinary citizens across the heavily fortified border.

North Korea proposed the reunions - the first in more than a year - in an apparent conciliatory move after tensions flared over the sinking of a South Korean warship. An international investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the ship, killing 46 South Korean sailors. North Korea, however, has continued to deny involvement in the tragedy.