Photo : YONHAP News
President Yoon Suk Yeol said that families separated by the Korean War is the most urgent issue the country should deal with, adding that the government is doing what it can, although North Korea is even rejecting inter-Korean humanitarian exchanges.
The president made the remarks in a speech read by unification minister Kim Young-ho on Sunday in a ceremony marking the second Separated Families Day at a KBS hall in Seoul.
Yoon said that among the 130-thousand applicants that are searching for their separated families in the North, about three thousand people pass away every year before being reunited with their separated families.
The president said that the government will strengthen the foundation for cooperation to resolve the issue by continuing to call for global attention to the issue at international organizations, including the United Nations.
Last year, South Korea designated August 13 on the lunar calendar as a commemorative day for separated families to console their pains and raise public awareness of the issue.