DATE=8/14/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREAS REUNION PREVIEW (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-265433
BYLINE=AMY BICKERS
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// EDS: Reunions begin Tuesday, 4 PM local time ///
INTRO: Two-hundred people from North and South
Korea will participate in a family reunion that
starts Tuesday in Seoul and Pyongyang. As VOA's
Amy Bickers reports from the South Korean
capital, the government-arranged reunion is the
first since 1985.
TEXT: Last minute preparations are underway for
an emotional event that dozens of Korean families
are eagerly awaiting: the reunion of two hundred
people who have not seen each other for half a
century.
Many of these families were separated from each
other in the 1950's during the three-year Korean
War.
The separated family members will meet in the two
Korean capitals at government-chosen sites. They
will not be allowed to visit their hometowns and
ancestral graves.
The reunion is one of a number of friendly steps
resulting from the unprecedented inter-Koreas
summit between the North's, Kim Jong Il, and the
South's, Kim Dae-jung, in June. The two nations
reopened border offices for official
communications Monday, and recently stopped
propaganda broadcasts against each other's
governments.
South Korea chose its one hundred reunion
finalists through a computer lottery. Most of
them are retirees over 70 years old. By contrast,
North Korea will send many state-decorated
individuals, including a renowned poet, a film
maker, a painter and a scientist. Many are
defectors from South Korea.
Analysts in Seoul say that Pyongyang is trying to
send a message that defectors from South Korea
are well treated in the North. (SIGNED)
NEB/AB/HK/GC/JO
14-Aug-2000 06:38 AM LOC (14-Aug-2000 1038 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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