North and South Korean families were forced to say a final, traumatic farewell Thursday after meeting for the first time in more than 60 years, as the joy of temporary reunion gave way to the grief of permanent separation.
On the third and last day of their all-too brief, emotionally charged reunion in a North Korean mountain resort, the families were given two hours in the morning to say their last goodbyes.
It was perhaps the most fraught part of the entire event, with relatives on both sides — especially the elderly in their 70s, 80s or even 90s — all too aware that this was likely the last time they would ever see each other.
Some spent their last minutes together simply clinging to each other, while others sought to put on a brave face, holding hands and wiping away tears as they sat at numbered tables in the resort’s main banquet area.
TV footage from the resort showed one elderly North Korean woman trying to keep the mood on her table upbeat, challenging everyone to an arm wrestle to show off her physical health.
But then the North Koreans boarded buses to take them home, prompting desperate final scenes as they pressed their hands and faces to the windows, trying to maintain eye contact with their weeping South Korean relatives outside as the vehicles moved away.
It was only the second reunion to be held in the past five years, and interaction was tightly controlled — limited to six, two-hour sessions, including meetings in a communal hall and private one-on-one time without TV cameras.
