North-South family reunion

North-South family reunion (남북 이산가족 상봉/南北離散家族相逢) is an occasion when family members separated between the 38th parallel or the demilitized zone of the Korean Peninsula.

Since the family members were separated between the North and the South after the Korean War, more than 60 years have passed. So more than 3 thousand senior citizens reportedly pass away each year. It means that there is little time remained for something meaningful to be done.

At present, the Ministry of Unification and the Korean Red Cross are jointly operating the Integrated Information System for Separated Families (이산가족정보통합시스템) on-line to help the separated families to meet each other and exchange communications between the two Koreas.

Key words
family reunion, diaspora, Korean War, Red Cross, video meeting (화상상봉/畵像相逢)

Diaspora of Korean people
Since the 19th century Korean people moved to Manchuria and Maritime Provice of Russia (연해주/沿海州). Some of them immigrated to Hawaii and San Francisco, and even to Mexico. What made the Koreans to leave their home country? At first, it was continuous famine and poverty at home. Later, the desire for better education of the next generation drove the Korean people out of country.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of overseas Koreans is estimated around seven million. One fourth of Koreans live out of country in China, the United States and Japan. Koreans are one of the minorities over 0.5 percent of the whole population in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Middle Asian countries, Austria.

Liberation and Korean War
In 1945, the Korean Peninsula was divided between the 38th parallel line. To evade the communist regime in the North, a number of Koreans became refugees of their own volition. Five years later, the Korean War broke out, and millions of North Koreans fled to the South to seek freedom and to live like a human being.

Family reunion
At first, starting from August 12, 1971, the Korean Red Cross staged a campaign to seek other family members separated between the South and the North because of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the Korean War.

Since then the separated family members were eager to know living existence and to exchange communications each other.

It was an epoch-making event never to be forgotten. The Red Cross of the South and the North agreed to exchange its own home visiting group and cultural entertainment performing artists at Seoul and Pyongyang in September 1985.

In 2013 for the 18th series, family reunions were scheduled for later in September right after Chusok. The Korean Red Cross confirmed the identity and locations of 149 people on a list of 200 South Koreans sent by the North on August 29. It also confirmed the availability of 167 of the 250 North Korean family members requested by the South.

Finally it was slated for exchange of the shortlist of 100 people from each side at the truce village of Panmunjom giving priority to the oldest and most directly related relatives. However, on September 21, North Korea unilaterally called off family reunions scheduled for Sep. 25-30, and South Korea warned that there would be no negotiations on resuming business at Mt. Geumgang resort.

The elders' hope still lingers on. On January 6, 2014, in her New Year’s press conference, President Park Geun-hye proposed reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War to take place during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January. She was responding to a New Year’s message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who mentioned the need to foster a “favorable climate” to improve ties. Park’s offer was not mere conciliatory rhetoric. Within hours of her press conference, the government officially delivered a request to Pyongyang to initiate working-level talks toward a resumption of the family reunions.

On February 5, 2014, North and South Korea agreed to hold the reunions for families separated during the Korean War from February 20 to 25, three days later than the South had originally proposed. Three Red Cross officials from each Korea finalized plans in a meeting at Panmunjom, but did not touch upon the long-suspended resumption of the inter-Korean tourism program at Mt. Geumgang resort.

Home visiting

 * Home visiting group and cultural entertainment artists: September 20 - 23, 1985
 * 1st Family reunion: August 15 - 18, 2000 right after the Inter-Korean Summit meeting
 * 2nd Family reunion: November 30 - December 2, 2000
 * 3rd Family reunion: February 26 - 28, 2001
 * 4th Family reunion: April 28 - May 3, 2002
 * 5th Family reunion: September 13 - 18, 2002
 * 6th Family reunion: February 20 - 25, 2003
 * 7th Family reunion: June 27 - July 2, 2003
 * 8th Family reunion: September 20 - 23, 2003
 * 9th Family reunion: July 11 - 16, 2004
 * 10th Family reunion: August 26 - 31, 2005
 * 11th Family reunion: November 5 - 10, 2005
 * 12th Family reunion: March 20 - 25, 2006
 * 13th Family reunion: June 19 - 30, 2006
 * 14th Family reunion: May 9 - 14, 2007
 * 15th Family reunion: October 17 - 22, 2007
 * 16th Family reunion: September 26 - October 1, 2009
 * 17th Family reunion: October 30 - November 5, 2010
 * 18th Family reunion: February 20 - 25, 2014

Video meeting

 * 1st Video meeting: August 15, 2005
 * 2nd Video meeting: November 24 - 25, 2005
 * 3rd Video meeting: December 8 - 9, 2005
 * 4th Video meeting: February 27 - 28, 2006

How to excellerate Family reunion
As the North and South family reunion meetings have been influenced by the inter-Korean or international situations, several times of visiting meetings or video meetings could not satisfy the needs of such separated families.

In May 2013, the Korean Red Cross embarked on sending video letters of South Koreans who wished their messages to be delivered to the beloved family members in the North. In a first series of the said event, the Korean Red Cross has completed 12-minute video letters for 815 families. Of the registered 75 thousand separated family members at the Integrated Information System for Separated Families (이산가족 통합정보시스템), 16,823 families applied for their video messages to be sent to the North.

Legal entanglement
Inter-Korean family relations (남북 가족관계/南北家族關係) are concerned about how to resolve the problems of the inevitable bigamy (중혼/重婚) and inheritance (상속/相續) among the residents in South and North Korea. As the Inter-Korean relations and intercourse are on the increase, such problems are hard to resolve by the court. So the Ministry of Justice prepared the bill and the National Assembly plenary session passed it on January 27, 2012.

Now the Exemption Act Concerning the Family Relationship and Inheritace among the Residents in South and North Korea (Act No. 11299 promulgated on February 10, 2012) (남북 주민 사이의 가족관계와 상속 등에 관한 특례법, hereinafter referred to as the "Act") came into force on May 11, 2012.

For further information and on-line legal advice, you are requested to visit the Ministry of Justice website, Unification & Law.