The Korean Red Cross said Sunday it will make this year video messages and conduct a DNA test of tens of thousands of people separated by the Korean War for possible video reunions and legal dispute settlement after their deaths.
The move comes as nearly half of about 130,000 separated families in South Korea have died since 1988 when they applied for inter-Korean family reunion events, which have been on and off due to the North’s inaction.
Millions of Koreans remain separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Since the first-ever 2000 summit of their leaders, the two Koreas have held 18 rounds of temporary reunions of families, with the last round in February last year.
The Red Cross will make a 10-13 minute video message for each of the 10,000 separated families containing greetings, expectations for reunions and their personal tales of their hometown, family and memories, a spokesman said.
It will be the first time for the Red Cross to make such a large quantity of video messages, although it has made similar messages on a smaller scale.
The KRC will also conduct a DNA test of another 100,000 separated families this year so the test results could serve as the basis for property inheritance or any other legal disputes, with the possibility of them also being sent to the North, after the Korean reunification, the spokesman said.
As many as 129,688 families have filed with the government for family reunions since 1988, according to government data, with 62,845 or 48.5 percent having died.
Survivors are broken down by age group to 8,082 or 12.1 percent in their 90s, 28,378 or 42.5 percent in their 80s and 18,208 or 27.2 percent in their 70s. (Yonhap)
