I Couldn’t Close My Eyes without Seeing Your Faces Again

“Now I am seeing you face to face after all those years. Thank you for being still alive and well…” Kim Hye-yeon, a 93-year-old man from the South met with Park Jong-jeong, his wife of the same age, and two sons and a daughter in Keumgangsan Hotel in the North on September 16.

The man and wife who already turned 90 were stroking each other’s face with their worn hands. Unable to find words, they were just looking at each other looking for traces of the last 52 years.

When his sons and daughter asked how his health was, he answered, “I managed to survive two times of heart attacks because I couldn’t give up knowing that my family is living in the North.”

Kim had a ranch in North Pyongannam Province when the Korean War broke out, forcing him to fleeing his home. He was supposed to meet his family at his younger sister’s house but the house was already under control of North Korean army. And his wife and little children did not show up even a day after, so he had to come down to the South all by himself and lived in Busan for 10 days. He married again and became a father of two sons and a daughter but his wife passed away in 1988.

Im Hwang-yeol, 69-year-old woman from the South was in the arms of her 90-year-old mother living in the North. She was shedding tears feeling her mother’s hand gently stroking her head as her siblings watched the scene.

Im parted from the rest of her family in July 1951. Her parents who lived in Yeonbak, Hwanghae Province at the time of the war sent their oldest daughter away fearing that North Korean army took her away. She hid herself in Yongmae-do, a nearby island, thinking that she could see her family after about a week. As the war intensified, however, she went downward to Yeonpyong-do looking for something to eat and further ended up in Yeosu, far apart from her family.

99 South Koreans arrived at Haekeumgang Hotel near Mountain Keumgang on the day to meet with their 253 North Korean kin at the mass reunions. The will stay at the hotel for private meetings set for the second day September 17 at Mt. Keumgang Inn. Family members, then, will tour Samilpo together in the afternoon.

Young-Sik Kim spear@donga.com