NK Revealed List of Family Re-Union Candidates of Separated Families

The Korean Red Cross exchanged the list of the candidates for the 4th family re-union of the separated families during Oct. 16-18 with the North and revealed 200 names of the candidates.

The 200 names that the North requested for the verification of their fate and address include 34 people of the candidates in the second visit and 166 people in the third visit who had unfortunately dropped from the final list to visit their families in the South. (The NK list of the names is published in donga.com (http://www.donga.com))

The oldest candidate among the North Koreans is Han In-Gi (83, Seokmoon-myon, Dangjin-gun, Chungnam), hoping to meet his daughter Jeong-Ja (60) and son (56), who were confirmed alive at the 3rd exchange of the candidate list. The portion of the North Korean celebrities in the list has reduced since the 1st and 2nd exchange of the separated family re-unions, showing the settlement of the family re-union in reality.

The North Korean celebrities in the 4th list include Bae Jae-In (65), the Principal of Pyongyang 1st Senior High School, Hwang Young-Joon (82), honored artist of the North, Kim Sung-Ha (73), professor of philosophy at Kim Il-Sung University, elder brother of Kim Min-Ha, senior vice-president of the Consultative Committee for the Democracy, Peace, and Unification. However, the mother of Mr. Kim Sung-Ha passed away on April 28 after she had received a letter from her son, Sung-Ha, on March 15.

The North Korean candidates are looking for their father (1), mother (11), spouse (12), children (8), siblings (166), and uncle and other (2).

The South`s list delivered by the Korean Red Cross to the North are composed of 136 men and 64 women, and by ages, 38 are in their sixties, 96 in seventies, and 66 in eighties.

Red Cross will verify the fates and the addresses of the candidates and will exchange the outcomes with the North on Oct. 8. The final list of 100 visitors will be decided on Oct. 9.

For more information, Call the Korean Red Cross, 02-3705-3656~9, 02-3705-3705

Kim Young-Sik spear@donga.com