War-torn families of two Koreas spend private time together

Arirang News 2018-08-21

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Korean families torn apart during the Korean War in the early 1950s are just starting their *second day of reunion events.
The first day was bittersweet,... as they soaked in every precious moment with each other... knowing they probably won't get another chance like this again.
With that.... let's now turn to our Oh Jung-hee who's covering the event for us this week.
Jung-hee, what's the plan for today... and the remainder of this batch of reunions?

Ji-yoon, it's the day two of the three-day-long family reunions.
According to the South Korean joint press pool at North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort,... the South Korean families generally seem to be feeling okay and healthy.
This morning, the South Koreans ate breakfast at the resort and had a short morning walk.

Today, the families will be spending 5 hours in total with their North Korean relatives.
From 10 this morning until just now, families from South and North Korea got to spend two hours just by themselves in their rooms at the resort.
And by now, they'll be starting to have lunch by themselves.
This three-hour-long private reunion session is a close-door one, so it's not going to be open to the joint press pool there and we won't be getting any footage of it.
But it's pretty apparent that the families will be spending a much closer time with each other, speaking much more candidly with each other, than at the public reunions... especially as they're away from the eyes of South and North Korean officials.
It's the first time in history that war-separated families have had the chance to eat a meal together just by themselves.
Previously, they've always had to eat at a joint luncheon,... but for this round of reunions, South and North Korean authorities agreed to turn this lunch session into a closed-door one,... so that families would be able to have more private time than before -- three hours, rather than two.
And this afternoon, there's going be another two-hour joint group reunion.
Just to give you a recap of how things went yesterday -- the first day of the three-day-long reunions -- South Korean families arrived at North Korea's Mount Kumgang at around 1PM.
They met their relatives in North Korea over two sessions -- a joint group reunion in late afternoon... and welcoming dinner hosted by North Korea.
Over 360 South Koreans are currently at the Mount Kumgang Resort, including family members, support staff, and members of the press.
Back to you, Ji-yoon.

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