S. Korean gets sad news in Pyongyang

"I mistakenly believed that my mother, who passed away 38 years ago, was still alive," Jang E-Yoon, 71, who was delighted to meet his 109-year-old mother and prepared a pink jacket and purple skirt for her, lamented to belatedly hear that she had died long ago. Jang met his nephew in Pyongyang and confirmed that his mother, Koo In-Hyun, died away on March 25, 1962, and felt devastated at the news.

Jang escaped to his relative`s to avoid enlistment by the People`s Army, and then had to part with his mother as he crossed the Daedong River. He barely cried "Mother." As the last-born child of the family of 10 children -- seven sons and three daughters -- he longed for his mother more than most people. So he cried aloud for a while despite the consolation of his nephew.

Jang talked to Jang Joon-Suk, 52, the youngest son of his elder brother Jang Myung-Taek, about his memories of his boyhood days about 50 years ago, when he parted from his mother, asking, "Did you recognized me?" He recognized his relatives in the North one by one. He shared a North Korean-made cigarette with his nephew and smiled at the fact that he met with his relatives in the North for the first time in 50 years, although he failed to see his mother. And then, he fell at the thought that he would never see his mother.