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2h ago

Lee Urges North Korea to Allow Basic Contact for Separated Families

The appeal targets a limited, low-burden opening given frozen inter-Korean channels.

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President Lee Jae Myung (C) talks with people who were displaced during the 1950-53 Korean War while looking toward North Korea at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in the western city of Incheon on Oct. 3, 2025. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
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Second Deputy National Security Adviser Lim Woong-soon delivers a speech on behalf of President Lee Jae Myung at a ceremony marking the third Separated Families Day at a hotel in Seoul on Oct. 4, 2025, in this photo provided by the unification ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Overview

  • On Oct. 3 during Chuseok, President Lee met elderly war-displaced Koreans at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon and issued the appeal.
  • He urged Pyongyang to let separated families confirm relatives’ survival or exchange letters, calling it a shared political responsibility of both sides.
  • The call marks his first concrete step under the END initiative unveiled at the U.N., using humanitarian measures to seek renewed engagement.
  • North Korea has rejected talks and has dismantled reunion facilities such as at Mount Kumgang, and there has been no sign of a response to Seoul’s proposal.
  • Urgency is mounting: of more than 134,000 South Koreans registered for reunions, only 35,311 remain alive, and the last reunions took place in 2018.