Elderly Family Members Set For The Korean Reunion In October May Be Running Out Of Time

by Czarelli Tuason / Sep 08, 2015 05:05 AM EDT

South Korea's Red Cross volunteers help elders reunite with their families from North Korea | By: Jung Yeon Je | Getty Images

During the 1950-1953 war between North and South Korea, families have separated and annual family reunions haven't been established until the North-South summit in 2000. However, only one reunion has taken place in the past five years as military tension between the Koreas heightened over alleged attacks.

After coming into a mutual agreement two weeks ago, calming the cross-border conflict, Red Cross officials has started talking about organizing family reunions. This is the second event in five years, and it will be expected to commence on October in North Korea's Kumgang resort.

In an article published on Sunday by Yahoo News, it has noted that 130,000 people have shown interest for a reunion spot since 1988. To date, more than half of the applicants have already died and an annual growing trend of mortality rate concerns the Red Cross volunteers.

In Seoul, the Red Cross centre volunteers are working hard to contact over 66,000 reunion applicants on the waiting list, checking if these people are still alive and physically capable of participating in the event.

"It's a long, arduous task, contacting that many elderly people, one-by-one, double-checking their addresses, telephone numbers and other information," explains Woo Kwang Ho, a Red Cross official.

"We find there's a growing number of people who just don't want to know anymore. They're so frustrated," Woo adds. "And then there are many who are simply now too frail to consider participating. The reality is that this list will be nearly empty in a decade from now.

According to The Guardian in an article published yesterday, the last reunion that took place in February 2014 had 500 candidates who were randomly chosen by a computer based on their age and family background. The number was then cut down to 200, following interviews and medical assessments. A final count of 100 was completed after ensuring that family members from the other country were still alive.

As the recent mutual agreement has not considered a peace treaty but, rather, an armistice, North and South Korea technically are still at war and are still banning all phone calls and letters from being exchanged.