Over 82% of family reunion applicants in North America uncontactable: unification ministry

This Sept. 27, 2023, file photo shows a member of a family separated by the 1950-53 Korean War writing a message during an event held to commemorate separated families in Seoul. Yonhap

The government in Seoul is now unable to reach more than 80 percent of those who applied from North America for family reunions with their separated family members in North Korea.

The Ministry of Unification said on Wednesday that it was able to reach 146 out of the total 825 people it contacted in the United States and Canada last year for its research. After being separated by the 1950-53 Korean War for more than 70 years, many of those who did not respond to the ministry may not be alive.

As of December 2023, 94,391 out of the total 133,984, or 70.4 percent, of applicants living in South Korea had died, ministry data shows.

According to a survey revealed the same day, 91 percent of the 119 applicants in the U.S. or Canada said they want to know whether their long-lost family members are still alive in the North, while 84 percent said they want to meet them in person.

With inter-Korean relations showing no signs of improving, reunion hopes for such families are dimming by the day. According to the ministry, more than 65 percent of the applicants in South Korea were 80 or older.

Since the first Seoul-Pyongyang summit in 2000, the two sides have held 21 rounds of in-person family reunion events, including the latest one in August 2018. Since then, almost all forms of exchanges have been halted amid growing military tensions between the two Koreas.

In 2022, former Unification Minister Kwon Young-se proposed holding talks to discuss family reunion issues, but the North gave no response.