More and more South Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War are losing hope of ever visiting their hometowns or reuniting with their loved ones in the North, a survey showed Friday.
According to the 2024 survey conducted by the Ministry of Unification, 57.2 percent of respondents said they want to see their loved ones in North Korea, down from 65.8 percent in 2021. The demand to visit their hometowns in the North dropped by 26.7 percentage points, while the demand for letter exchanges also declined by about 8 percentage points.
The survey gathered responses from 35,542 South Koreans and 475 Koreans living abroad, primarily in the U.S. They had all registered themselves on a list of people believed to have family ties in the North.
The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Since the first Seoul-Pyongyang summit in 2000, the two sides have held 21 rounds of in-person family reunions, including the latest one in August 2018. Since then, almost all forms of exchanges have been halted amid North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile provocations.
The unification ministry noted that the latest results reflect lowered expectations about the possibility of direct relatives in the North still surviving. It also mentioned that the survey cycle was shortened from five to three years, as more South Koreans have passed away of old age without the opportunity to reunite with their relatives in North Korea.
According to the results, 63.6 percent of those living in South Korea and 60.9 percent of those living abroad are currently over the age of 80.
An elderly South Korean leaves a message on the occasion of the newly designated Separated Families Day in Seoul, Sept. 27, 2023. Yonhap
Nearly 76 percent of respondents said they are unable to confirm whether their long-lost relatives are still alive in the North.
Data shows that of the 134,291 South Koreans on the waiting list for government-arranged reunions, 97,350 have passed away as of last month.
In terms of policy priorities, 77.2 percent of respondents said the most urgent need is for the government to find out if their family members in the North are still alive and to be notified when they die. About 37.5 percent requested regular family reunions, followed by letter exchanges (18.2 percent) and virtual reunions (11.8 percent). Respondents were allowed to select more than one policy priority.
In an in-depth interview with 5,103 selected participants in the latest survey, 55.3 percent of respondents expressed a desire to know whether their family members in the North are still alive. However, 19.4 percent said they no longer wish to find out.
About 14.4 percent selected in-person reunions as their preference, followed by just 3.5 percent who expressed their wishes to visit their hometowns in the North.
“We will establish and promote policies for inter-Korean separated families that better meet their demands considering changes in preferences and the aging of separated families,” a unification ministry official said.
The government designated Aug. 13 on the lunar calendar, or two days before the Chuseok holiday, as Separated Families Day in 2023 as part of broader efforts to raise awareness about the issue of separated families.
