By Park Gil Ja and Kim Min-Jeung

A group of South Koreans will finally rejoin its families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, after 65 years at the 21st inter-Korean family reunions to be held on Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. at Mount Kumkang resort, along the east coast in southern North Korea.

The reunited families will first meet with their loved ones for two hours at the Mount Kumkang resort, which will then be followed by a welcoming reception hosted by the North Korean government.

On the second day of the family reunions, participants are scheduled to have private meetings with their separated family members from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the resort. Prior to this set of reunions, only two hours were allowed for private meetings, but this time the two Koreas agreed to let the participants eat lunch together in their rooms for an hour.

In the first session, a group of 89 South Koreans will meet with their loved ones on six occasions lasting a combined 11 hours. The oldest participant is 101-year-old Baek Sung-gyu, who’s meeting with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter from the North. From Aug. 24 to 26 at the resort, 83 North Koreans will also be reunited with their family members that they have found alive in the South.

It’s been 2 years and 10 months since the last inter-Korean family reunions took place in October 2015. These new reunions are the result of an agreement the leaders of South and North Korea reached on April 27, 2018, to implement the Panmunjom Declaration concerning the reunion of separated family members.

As many participants are elderly, the Seoul government has dispatched medical staff with the South Korean delegation. If an emergency breaks out, helicopters will swiftly transfer patients to facilities in the South.

An official from the Ministry of Unification said, “We will take into account that the reunions are taking place amid a heat wave and do our best to hold the event without any hitch, keeping the inter-Korean families’ health and safety a priority.”

krun@korea.kr