Min Byung-hyun, an 85-year-old South Korean grandfather, showed up in wheelchairs at a hotel in the country's northeast coastal city of Sokcho Sunday to reunite with his younger sister from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) he has never met since the Korean War broke out in 1950.
Two of his younger sisters ended up in the DPRK since the war ended three years later with armistice that left the Korean Peninsula divided. Min recently heard from the South Korean Red Cross that one of his sisters was still alive though the other passed away 25 years ago.
Min lost both of his parents during the war. While fleeing southward, he was separated from the sisters when they were six and eight years old each. The sense of guilt that he failed to look after his young sisters has weighed down on his entire life.
"I'm a sinner. I alone fled to the south failing to take care of my little ones. I want to say I'm sorry' to her (when I meet her). But it will not be enough (to expiate my sin)," Min told Xinhua with tears in his eyes.
Min was among 89 South Koreans who will cross the heavily armed border into Mount Kumgang in southeast DPRK for the first reunions of war-separated families in nearly three years. The latest was held in October 2015.
The South Koreans gathered here to register for the reunions, get their health checked and take lessons in what to do and what not to do in the DPRK. They will leave for the venue Monday morning to stay there for three days.
The second session of three-day reunions, involving 83 DPRK families who applied for gatherings with South Korean relatives, will begin from Thursday at the same venue. The two Koreas agreed in June to hold the reunions.
Lee Chun-ja, 88, told Xinhua that the war shouldn't have erupted as she never saw two of her elder brothers after the war. She was separated from her brothers by an air strike while fleeing.
Lee gave her brothers up for dead, but she heard from the Red Cross that the children of her brothers were alive in the DPRK. "(When I meet them), I'll say thanks to them because they are still alive," said Lee sitting in wheelchairs.
Since the fratricidal war was halted by armistice in 1953, the separated families have been banned from exchanging letters and phone calls, much less meeting each other.
A combined 20 rounds of face-to-face reunions have been arranged since the first-ever inter-Korean summit was held in 2000, but the reunions have been limited to about 200 separated families from each side. Over half of South Koreans on the waiting list for reunions are in their 80s or older.
Im Eung-bok, 78, brought an old photograph of his whole family taken before the war. Im told Xinhua he will show it to the wife and the son of his elder brother, who only ended up in the DPRK out of his five siblings.
Im recently heard that his brother passed away in 2001 though the brother's wife and son were alive. After hearing their being alive, Im wrote letters by hand to convey those when he meets them.
He wrote in the letter, "I hope the day would come soon when people of the South and the North come and go freely. On the day, let's live happily hugging each other as there are many siblings alive in the South."
Their meeting, arranged after decades of separation, will be painfully short. They will be granted permission to meet for only 11 hours in group and private gatherings during the three-day reunions.
It could be the only chance for the separated families to meet face-to-face. The eldest South Korean participant for the first session of reunions is a 101-year-old Baek Sung-gyu who will meet his daughter-in-law and granddaughter from the DPRK.
South Korean separated families brought old prewar photographs to show those to the long-lost DPRK relatives as well as household items, including underwear, toothpaste, soap and others, as a gift.
