As Many As 16 Thousand South Korean Seniors Have Died in Five Years of Waiting For Reunions with Relatives in North Korea

North Koreans Lee Young Sil (left) and Lee Jung Sil (right) arrived at the Kumgang Mountains resort, North Korea to meet members of the South Korean family in 2015. (Between/Reuters/Yonhap/Lee Ji-eun)

JAKARTA - Around 16.000 elderly people in South Korea are estimated to have died in the past five years while waiting for reunions with their family members in North Korea who were separated by the Korean War in 1950-1953.

According to data released by the Ministry of Unification today and quoted by Antara, every year since August 2018 around 3.400 to 3.700 people are no longer in this world.

August 2018 was the last in-person family reunion ever. The total number of people who have died has reached 16.000.

The data was released by legislator Yang Kyung-sook of the Democratic Party which is opposed to the government.

Since the first Korean summit in 2000, the two Koreas have held 21 reunion events.

However, the event was postponed due to strained inter-Korean relations after the North Korean and United States summit in Hanoi in early 2019 ended without any agreement.

Until the end of last month, out of 133.680 applicants who had registered with the government for family reunions, 92.534 of them had died, or 69.2 percent of reunion applicants.

In particular, among the 41.146 applicants who are still alive, 31.1 percent are aged 90 years or more and of this figure those who are 80 years or more make up 67 percent.

The issue of disintegrating families is becoming increasingly urgent to be resolved because more and more elderly people are dying without having the opportunity to meet their loved ones in North Korea because the closed regime in North Korea is reluctant to hold family reunions.

Yang Kyung-sook stated that in later talks with North Korea it is necessary to emphasize identifying whether relatives in North Korea are still alive and confirming their addresses.

"The two Koreas should organize this family reunion as soon as possible," Yang said.