Anchor: As tens of millions of South Koreans gather with family on this Chuseok thanksgiving holiday, many older people long to see those they left behind in the North during the Korean War. Marking Separated Families Day, KBS World listens to some of these people talk about the yearning, hope and frustration they feel as members of families that the inter-Korean border has divided for over 70 years. 
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: Ninety-six-year-old Mrs. Bae Ki-yeol was in her early 20s when she came down to the South during the Korean War.

During an interview with KBS World, Mrs. Bae shared her story of family separation.

[Sound bite: Mrs. Bae Ki-yeol, 96 - separated from family by the Korean War (Korean-English)]
“Hopefully, I may be able to meet my younger cousins, but I don’t know when that will happen. I’ve given up on the hope of ever meeting my family in the North. I’m in my later years now, so I’ve learned that holding onto that hope only causes me … pain and heartache.”

Mr. Pyon Seung-sok, also 96, was able to meet his daughter in North Korea in 2005, but he can no longer reach her. 

[Sound bite: Mr. Pyon Seung-sok, 96 - separated from family by the Korean War (Korean-English)]
“We exchanged letters until 2013. But later that year, a letter I sent came back to me, and there’s been no news from my family since. So I don’t know what happened to them at all. I don’t even know if the children are all dead. I know I don’t have much time left, as I’m already in my 90s. So I’m just living like this, my heart slowly rotting away.”

The Korean War broke out in the summer of 1950, leaving millions of families separated by the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. 

More than 97-thousand registered members of separated families had died as of the end of last year, and fewer than 37-thousand people remain in the government registry in the South as of early 2025. 

Of those, more than 30 percent are over 90 years old.

The government on Saturday held the third Separated Families Day at a hotel in Seoul with some 400 people in attendance.  

But with inter-Korean ties remaining icy, chances appear faint that these elderly Koreans will meet their loved ones one last time before they pass.

Ahead of the Chuseok thanksgiving holiday, during which many South Koreans travel to their hometowns, President Lee Jae Myung visited an observatory facing toward the North across the inter-Korean border together with members of separated families.

He urged the North to allow them to at least exchange letters. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.