Reunification elderly Koreans is short : ' See you in hereafter '

- No fewer than 65 have several hundred war- separated Korean couples have to wait for a reunion and after three days it was already over.

" See you in the hereafter ", In whispered Oh Se ( 83 ), his wife Lee Soon- kyu ( 85 ) at the farewell increasing. Her response : " Stay healthy and live long. "

Three days they have enjoyed each other's company, because the two decades apart, separated by barbed wire and impenetrable border crossings. They were 17 and 19 when they married in 1949, just seven months later, they lost sight of each other during the Korean War.

The Diamond Mountain resort ( in North Korea) this week was the setting for a reunion. Around 390 elderly South Koreans went to the resort to finally, after 65 years, to join their loved ones in their arms. Once in a while let the North Korean authorities to such reunions. About 250 South Koreans get the chance this weekend, on the waiting list there are 66 000 (!).

Lee, who was pregnant and do on the south side of the border in 1950, made ​​the trip to the north now with her ​​now 65 -year-old son, his father never saw before. Lee raised her child alone, earned her living as a seamstress and her food on the farm. Oh if still alive, she did not. Annually held the never remarried a woman herdenkinsceremonie for her husband. Recently she first heard that her childhood sweetheart was still alive and was looking for her.

Three days lasted reunification. When Oh was again put on the bus, in the knowledge that there never was a reunion a Korean two opportunities in history. Since 2000, some 18 000 Koreans may close their long lost loved ones for a moment in the arms. Another 4500 were allowed to speak by video link with their relatives.

Outside these orchestrated encounters for there is no correspondence, email or telephone traffic permitted to citizens of North and South Korea.