Amid tragic tales of separation, Koreas plan further reunions for divided families

'I will do my utmost to speed up unification'

The North Koreans appear to have stock answers, such as those by Ryu Yol, 82, who was meeting his 59-year-old daughter for the first time since abandoning the family to join the north's volunteer army.

"Our general (Kim Jong-il) bestowed this opportunity on us to meet our relatives. I deeply appreciate that. I will do my utmost to speed up the unification process," he said.

Half a century of resentment felt by Paik Bok-hwa against her brother Paik Gi-taek, came out as they met.

"I thought you had been shot," she said. "But your sister went to look for you. You don't know how long she's been looking for you. She climbed mountains and crossed rivers to look for you everywhere, but couldn't find you."

Their mother, she said, was "always looking for you, even in her dreams. When she died she didn't even close her eyes. How could you? How could you? You go tell her to close her eyes."

Tour guide moved to tears at reunions

In the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, South Korean visitors were taken on Wednesday to the tomb of Tangun, the mythical founder of Korea. The tour guide told the visitors that she was moved to tears at seeing scenes of the reunions on both sides of the border.

"We should never forget we are descendants of our founding father, Tangun," the guide said before opening up the casket that is said to contain the bones of the legendary king and his queen.

The South Koreans were also taken by ferry to the USS Pueblo, the intelligence-gathering ship captured by the North Korean navy in January 1968 and now a museum piece moored on the banks of the Daedong River near Pyongyang.

The two delegations of visiting families are scheduled to have another day of meetings followed by a group dinner in the respective capitals on Thursday evening.

A South Korean plane will take the northern families back to Pyongyang on Friday before picking up the South Koreans for the return trip to Seoul.

Countries still technically at war

For the families fortunate enough to participate, this week's four-day reunions are a time to reestablish relationships lost during the Cold War of the 1940s and 1950s, when ideology split the Korean Peninsula and war sealed the divide.

The Koreas remain technically at war, and they have maintained heavily armed borders -- there are approximately 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on South Korea's side of the border -- since a cease-fire agreement in 1953 ended the fighting.

"It takes less than an hour to get here, (yet) we weren't able to meet for 50 years," said 68-year-old North Korean actor Lee Rae-song of his trip to Seoul.

"We should gather forces and break the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). This blood is thicker than water," he said.

Visits to family homes and gravesites not permitted

On Tuesday, the North Koreans were reunited in Seoul with family members they haven't seen since the war. Shortly after, 100 South Koreans were reunited with family members in Pyongyang.

The North Koreans met with their relatives Tuesday afternoon. While they were to meet privately during the reunion, they were not allowed to visit family homes or gravesites. The South Koreans had a similar schedule.

The reunions -- the first allowed by the governments since 1985 -- began on a national holiday in both Koreas. August 15 is the anniversary of the peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

"I think the reunions give a human element to the historic summit ... In other words, this gives the layman a feel for what this is really like," Lee Chong-min of Yonsei University told CNN.

Since the summit, the Koreas have reopened border liaison offices with telephone hotlines to each other, and announced they would reestablish a railway linking the countries.

The North Korean delegation crossed the border first, and then the South Koreans left for their reunions in Pyongyang. All of the North Korean family members were older than 60, and just seven were women. They were accompanied by 20 reporters and 31 government officials.

The North's delegation -- all of its members were native South Koreans who defected -- included luminaries from the arts, politics and science, while the 100 South Koreans had been selected through computer lottery.

Family reunions have been one of the most emotional of the issues that have defined the long-running standoff between the Koreas, which were once devoted to each other's downfall but have made strides toward reconciliation in recent months.