First Video Reunion of 40 Separated Families

Separated families from the North and the South reunited on August 15, the 60th anniversary of Liberation Day.

The South Korean National Red Cross and its counterpart in North Korea held a video conference with 20 families from each side.

South Korea set up 12 video conference rooms for the reunion in seven major cities, including Daejeon and Busan, while North Korea set up a facility in Pyongyang. The videoconferencing used an optical communication network.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young visited the headquarters of the South Korea National Red Cross in Namsan-dong, Seoul, one of the designated conference rooms for this event, in order to encourage separated families waiting for the reunion. “Presently, 120,000 families have requested the reunions, and 4,000-5,000 people pass away every year. It is almost impossible to let all of them meet each other in person while they are alive. So, I’ll do my best to create as many opportunities as possible to hold this video conference,” said the minister.

taewon_ha@donga.com