S. Korean families gather on eve of rare reunion

Yahoo – AFP, Sunghee Hwang, 19 August 2018

Elderly South Koreans like Kim Bong-eoh will meet family members in the
North later Monday 

Dozens of elderly and frail South Koreans gathered excitedly Sunday on the eve of their first meeting for nearly seven decades with family members in North Korea.

The three-day reunion -- the first for three years -- begins Monday at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, following a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula.

Millions of people were swept apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, which divided brothers and sisters, parents and children and husband and wives and perpetuated the division of the peninsula.

Among them was Lee Keum-seom, now a tiny and frail 92. She was waiting to see her son for the first time since she left him behind in the turmoil of war.

She lost her husband and four-year-old son as their family fled, and boarded a ferry headed for the South with only her infant daughter -- who was accompanying her to the reunion.

The son is now 71 and Lee has been told that he will bring his daughter-in-law to the meeting.

"I don't know what I'm feeling, whether it's good or bad," Lee told AFP. "I don't know if this is real or a dream."

She raised seven children after remarrying in South Korea but always worried about the son she left in the North. Now there are many questions to ask.

"Where he lived, who he lived with and who raised him -- because he was only four," she said.

Because the conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas have remained technically remain at war. All civilian exchanges -- even mundane family news -- are banned.

Time running out

Since 2000 the two nations have held 20 rounds of reunions but time is running out for many ageing family members.

More than 130,000 Southerners have signed up for a reunion since the events began but most of them have since died. Most of those still waiting are over 80 and the oldest participant this year is 101.

Korean Red Cross workers register participants arriving at a hotel before the reunion

With a few people dropping out at the last minute for health reasons, 89 elderly South Koreans -- accompanied by relatives -- gathered in Sokcho city on South Korea's northeast coast to spend the night before heading to the heavily-fortified border that has taken them decades to cross.

Lee Keum-seom is one of the few parents reuniting with a child.

Some of those selected for this year's reunions dropped out after learning that their parents or siblings had died and that they could only meet more distant relatives whom they had never seen before.

But Lee Kwan-joo, 93, said he would meet his nephew and niece to get a sense of the life that his parents and six siblings had led in the North before they died.

Lee in 1945 went to school in Seoul, away from his family in Pyongyang, and the war made the separation permanent.

"I was delighted to hear about my nephew and niece, even though I don't even know their faces," Lee said. "I just want to ask them how my brothers, sisters and parents passed away."

Over the next three days, the participants will spend only about 11 hours -- mostly under the watchful eyes of North Korean agents -- with their relatives in the North.

And on Wednesday the families will be separated once again -- in all likelihood for a final time.

Families at previous reunions have often found it a bitter-sweet experience. Some complained about the short time they were allowed to spend together.

Others lamented the ideological gap between them after decades spent apart.

Related Article:

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version) - New 

"The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you."