27 October 2015•Update: 28 October 2015
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea will do all it can to ensure a repeat of the recent family reunions hosted by North Korea, according to the President Park Geun-hye in a televised address Tuesday.
Her message offered hope to thousands who have waited decades to see their loved ones after being torn apart by the division of the Koreas following World War II and the subsequent 1950-53 Korean War, which ended only in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
The ongoing separation of now elderly relatives either side of the heavily guarded inter-Korean border has become one of the most pressing humanitarian concerns in the region.
There was at least some closure for hundreds of family members chosen by the Red Cross to attend a gathering at a North Korean mountain resort over the last week.
A cooperation deal reached between Seoul and Pyongyang in August paved the way for what was the 20th reunion event since 2000 -- a breakthrough year for inter-Korean ties.
But stop-start relations since then have limited the number of reunited relatives to less than 19,000 -- nearly 130,000 have applied to see their separated kin from the South Korean side alone, around half of whom have now passed away.
"The government will make every effort... to ensure that the family reunions can be held on a regular basis," Park vowed.
But the president was equally firm on security concerns, after the South Korean Navy fired warning shots to ward off a trespassing North Korean patrol vessel this past weekend.
Park insisted that the South would bolster its defenses to cope with any further provocations by the North.
While analysts have often viewed North Korean misbehavior as a key factor in hampering cooperation, the South Korean president pointed to August's agreement as a victory for Seoul's diplomatic strategy at a time when tensions were high.
