JAKARTA - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said North Korea should consider allowing separate families due to the 1950-1953 Korean War to confirm the fate of their relatives and exchange letters.
The statement was made by President Lee on Friday, amid no signs of progress in inter-Korean relations.
Since taking office in June this year, the President of North Korea has been trying to re-establish relations with North Korea, but tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has rejected the possibility of dialogue and called inter-Korean relations a hostile relationship between two countries.
"I think it is the responsibility of political circles in South and North Korea to allow separate families to ensure whether their relatives are still alive and, at least, exchanging letters," Lee said during a meeting with elderly people who fled North Korea to South Korea during the war period. reported by ANTARA from Yonhap-OANA, Friday, October 3.
The two countries are technically still in a state of war as the Korean War ended in a ceasefire and not a peace agreement.
Inter-Korean borders are tightly closed without direct communication such as letters, telephone, or internet for ordinary citizens.
"I would like to convey to the North to consider these steps on humanitarian grounds," Lee said while at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon, west of Seoul, which is facing North Korea.
"Even though we are in a confrontation, conflict, and competition militarily and politically, this step remains important in terms of humanity," he added.
Lee's statement was made on the first day of the long Chuseok holiday, days after Kim Jong-un reiterated his hostile attitude towards South Korea, citing he still remembers US President Donald Trump well.
Lee said ideally, separated families could meet face-to-face and live together again. But he admits the current relationship conditions are too hostile to make that happen in the near future.
"I feel guilty because this is all due to the shortcomings of politicians like me," he said and added that he promised to continue working until the day the family meeting could be realized.
As for 2023, Kim defines a relationship between Korea as a relationship between two hostile countries and promises not to pursue reconciliation or unification with the South.
Separate Korea has held 21 reunion rounds since the historic summit of their leaders in 2000, which brings together more than 20,000 family members who have not met since the war.
Usually, family reunions are held during major holidays such as Chuseok or other national holidays. The last time the reunion was held was in 2018.
In 2022, South Korea had proposed talks with North Korea to discuss family reunions, but North has not responded to the offer.
Family reunions are urgent humanitarian issues on the split peninsula, as most of the separate family members are in their 70s and 80s and wish to reunite with their long-lost relatives before they die.
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