Sokcho: The couple approached each other rather warily, as if unsure of what to say. After all, what’s the ice-breaker for a husband you haven’t seen for 65 years? How do you address a wife you’ve been told has been corrupted by American imperialists?
Lee Soon-gyu and her husband Oh In Se last saw each other in September 1950, when she was 19-years-old and six-months pregnant. They were separated during the Korean War, when the front line rolled up and down the peninsula.
They were reunited for a few hours during a rare inter-Korean gathering Tuesday, together with their son Oh Jang-kyun, who is 65 and was wearing a black hat almost identical to his father’s. They smiled weakly.
“Come sit close to me,” 83-year-old Oh said to his wife, gesturing toward a table in a crowded ballroom at the Kumgang mountain resort just across the northern side of the line that has arbitrarily divided the Koreas for generations, NDTV reported.
Oh sat between his wife and his son, holding their hands. Just as they groped for words, they also struggled to hear each other – perhaps because of the noise in the crowded hall, perhaps because Oh had almost no teeth and a huge hearing aid.
But it didn’t matter. They were grateful to be one of the 96 Korean families chosen for this reunion, out of 66,000 or more South Koreans who wanted to participate.
Koo Sang-yun, who at 98 was the oldest South Korean at the event, took two pairs of red traditional shoes for his two daughters, Sung-ja and Sun-ok, who are 71 and 68. They were 7 and 4 when they were separated from their father in September 1950, a few months after the war began.
When they were children, Koo had promised his daughters new shoes. Almost seven decades later, he was making good on that promise.
Foreign media were not allowed into the reunions, but a pool of domestic reporters brought footage back to the Southern side of the border. It showed scenes of sisters clutching at their brothers, a son bursting into tears as he introduced himself to his father, nephews kneeling on the floor to bow to uncles.
These family members were divided in the wake of the 1950-1953 Korean War, and they have lived vastly different lives, sometimes just miles apart, with no opportunity to contact one another.
The disparities between life in the developed South and the impoverished North were on stark display at the gathering. The North Koreans looked far older than their Southern peers, their faces more wrinkled and leathery, and many of them toothless.
The families will spend time with their relatives in their hotel rooms Wednesday, eating and drinking – the organizers selected low-alcohol liquor on account of the participants’ ages – and catching up on six lost decades.
“Thank you for being alive,” Lee, who was wearing a traditional Korean dress and had her long gray hair back in a bun, told her husband Tuesday. She had stayed in their house and never remarried, hopeful that her husband would one day return.
She brought him a simple gold watch, which she had engraved with each of their names. “Watches were precious in the past in the countryside,” Lee said as she put it on his wrist. “I’ve always regretted not being able to give [you] a watch.”
Oh, the son, told reporters here before he left for the reunion that he was looking forward to being able to say “Father” for the first time in his life. And that’s exactly what he did.
“Father,” he shouted at the sight of the old man, before bowing deeply, as is Korean custom, and hugging his father. “I’ve always tried to live as a proud son of yours,” he said, crying.
Oh, who was wearing the obligatory badge of North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on his lapel, seemed unsure what to say. He patted Lee on the back repeatedly and put his face against his son’s, asking if they looked alike.
“It’s all because of the war,” he said, holding Lee’s hand.