Unification minister vows efforts to resolve separated families issue

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Wednesday met with an aging separated family member in South Korea and pledged to address humanitarian issues through dialogue with North Korea, according to the unification ministry. Chung visited the home of Kim Bong-hwan, aged 105, in Seoul, in a bid to console her pain caused by decades of separation, according to the ministry. Kim asked Chung to confirm whether her family members in the North were still alive, saying it had been her lifelong wish to reunite with her siblings, from whom she was separated during the 1950–53 Korean War. While referring to separated families as the "biggest sorrow" stemming from the war, Chung vowed to make every effort to resolve humanitarian issues through various means, including dialogue with the North. Of the 134,514 people who applied for family reunions with their relatives in North Korea, only 34,658 were still alive as of late last month, according to the ministry. Among them, more than 32 percent are aged 90 or older, including 660 who are over 100.