North Korea has given South Korea’s proposal about resuming the reunion of families separated in the Korean War the green light indicating that the two countries’ sorely dented relations is indeed slowly mending. 

North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported Sunday that the event will take place during the Chuseok Harvest Festival scheduled on September 19 with the venue pointed out as Mount Kumgang Resort, the same North Korean resort where a South Korean tourist was shot by a North Korean soldier for allegedly trespassing in an off-limits area in 2008.

Tensions Before the Calm

The ties between the two countries became out of tune when North Korea launched a long-range rocket in December and did an underground nuclear testing in February. The tensions between the two rose for months with Nor-Kor letting out a barrage of threatening speeches against its neighboring country and the US in March and April after the United Nations Security Council decided to put its government under tighter sanctions while the South Korean military did drills with visiting American forces. The latest rift between North and South Korea resulted in the closing of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, an industrial complex shared by the two nations, initiated by the former which surprised a number of observers as the complex is a vital source of hard currency for the North Korean government headed by Kim Jong Un.

However, the two countries recently decided to conduct peace agreements between their governments; the talks bore the reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Zone and now, the continuation of the reunions of families separated during the war in 1950-1953. “The Kaesong Industrial Zone and the tours to Mt. Kumgang resort are valuable works common to the nation which should not be delayed as they are symbols of reconciliation, unity, reunification and prosperity,” the KCNA report stated.

The Reason Behind the Reunions

Division among families was a tragedy which occurred during the Cold War that permanently divided the once-united country into what is now known as North and South Korea. In the middle of war, about 650,000 Koreans fled North Korea for fear of political retribution. For years, the lines between the two countries’ borders remained silent; families in South Korea had no means of contact with their relatives on the other side. However, as years passed, some people have managed to break through the silence acting as intermediates between separated families managing to pass voice and mail contacts to each other. Contacting relatives on the other side also became easily accessible through illegal cell phones from China.

The first set of family reunions happened in 2000 after a landmark summit by the two Korean countries. These reunions were described as “bittersweet” – families were joyously reunited with long-lost relatives, though, the prospect of finding relatives one has not seen for years were quite slim. From 2000 until the last reunion event in 2010, approximately 17,100 people from 3,500 families were said to be reunited.