Civic groups representing families who have long lost relatives in North Korea launched a steering committee on Friday, to push for a visit to the North by elderly separated family members.
 
During the launch ceremony held in Seoul, the committee announced plans to have a group of 30 seniors, whose home town is across the border, to visit North Korea between September 25 and 27, during the Chuseok holiday period, so they can visit and pay respects at their family's tomb sites in the North.
 
Executive chief of the steering committee Lee Dong-bok said that inter-Korean family reunions are not enough to satisfy the eight-point-seven million South Koreans separated from their families by the Korean War.
 
Lee also hoped for support from the international community, citing the specific U.N. guideline that separated families in Korea must own the right to visit the tombs of their deceased relatives.