Searching for separated families

Separated families from North and South Korea held tearful reunions Thursday in Seoul and Pyongyang with kin they have not seen since the chaos of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Earlier in the day, a group of 100 elderly South Koreans traveled to Pyongyang while an equal number of elderly North Koreans arrived in Seoul for a three-day visit to meet long-lost relatives.

It was the second reunion of separated families held under an agreement signed by South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at their historic summit in June. The first reunion was held Aug. 15-19.

Television footage from Pyongyang showed 75-year-old Shin Dong Gil saying to his wheelchair-bound, 100-year-old mother, Han Doo Hee, ''Mother, can't you recognize me? It's your son Dong Gil.''

Shin, who was conscripted into the North Korean army during the Korean War, and his mother, who lives in South Korea, appeared overcome with emotion, with tears rolling down their cheeks.

In Seoul, 66-year-old Chung Jae Kap from North Korea was reunited with his 88-year-old mother. They lost contact after he was conscripted into the North Korean army while out on an errand.

''I have never abandoned the hope of seeing you,'' Chung told his mother.

Among the North Korean visitors was Kim Ki Man, 71, a noted North Korean painter who hopes to meet his 88-year-old brother Kim Ki Chang, a renowned South Korean painter.

It has not yet been decided, however, whether North Korean officials will allow Kim Ki Man to meet his brother, who has been in hospital since suffering a stroke in 1996.

The family reunions are tightly controlled, with family members not allowed to move freely or visit their relatives' homes or their ancestral graves.

On Friday, the North and South Korean family members will hold individual private meetings with their relatives in their hotel rooms.

The South Korean group arrived at Pyongyang's Sunan airport at around 1:50 p.m. after a one-hour flight aboard a chartered (South) Korean Air plane on a direct route over the Yellow Sea.

Their departure from Seoul was delayed for about four hours due to thick fog at Pyongyang's Sunan airport.

The same plane then picked up the North Korean group, most of whose members are in their 60s, arriving at Seoul's Kimpo international airport at around 5:10 p.m.

The South Korean group traveling to the North was led by Pong Du Wan, deputy chairman of the South Korean National Red Cross, and included officials and journalists in the 151-strong party.

The North Korean visitors were led by Jang Jae On, chairman of the central committee of North Korea's Red Cross Society.

Officials say the family members will meet their relatives on five separate occasions, including Thursday's group meeting.

The South Korean visitors were selected through a computer lottery from the nearly 90,000 people who had put forward their names.

It is not known how the North Korean visitors were chosen but loyalty to the regime appears to have been a key factor as their party includes a number of prominent people with state decorations as well as university professors.

There are some 1.2 million people in the South with immediate family members in the North. If the second and third generations are added, the total reaches nearly 7.7 million.

The family reunions are one of the most tangible outcomes of the June summit between the North and South Korean leaders, at which they pledged to end nearly half a century of confrontation and work toward national reconciliation and eventual reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

In 1985, 50 separated family members from North and South Korea crossed the border to meet long-lost kin in the first such reunion organized by the two countries.