SEOUL, January 30 (AJP) - Over 70 percent of South Koreans who registered for family reunions have died without seeing their loved ones in North Korea, according to government data released Thursday.
The Ministry of Unification reported that 97,350 registered separated family members had passed away by the end of last year. Over the past year, 2,959 more passed away, leaving only 36,941 survivors.
Of the 134,291 individuals who applied for family reunions, around 72 percent have died. Given the current rate of aging and death registrations, the number of deceased is expected to surpass 100,000 in the latter half of this year.
Among the remaining survivors, 30.7 percent are aged 90 or older, while 34.8 percent are in their 80s and 18.5 percent are in their 70s, meaning 84 percent of surviving applicants are at least 70 years old.
Due to prolonged deadlock in inter-Korean relations, there were no government-facilitated family reunions last year. Since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two Koreas have held 21 rounds of family reunions, with the most recent taking place in August 2018.
The two Koreas have been separated since 1953 when the Korean War ended in an armistice. In 2023, one private family reunion was reported to the unification ministry. Unlike official government-arranged events, private reunions mainly happen through intermediaries in third countries like China.
Some reunions may have occurred without being reported to the ministry, leaving the government unaware of them.
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