82% of Separated Families "Don't Even Know the Life or Death of North Korean Relatives"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Eight out of ten separated family members (82%) have still not confirmed the life status of their North Korean relatives. They identified 'comprehensive confirmation of life status' (65.8%) as the most urgent task to resolve the separated families issue.

The Ministry of Unification announced on the 9th that, in collaboration with the Korean Red Cross, it conducted the '2021 3rd South-North Separated Families Survey' targeting 5,354 out of 47,004 separated family survivors domestically and abroad, revealing these results.

Among applicants residing in South Korea, the willingness to participate in separated family exchanges was high for confirming the life status of North Korean relatives (75.7%), hometown visits (69.7%), reunions (65.8%), and exchanging letters or video messages (60%).

For applicants residing overseas, the willingness to participate was highest for confirming the life status of North Korean relatives (86.9%), reunions (76.2%), exchanging letters or video messages (67.9%), and hometown visits (61.9%), in that order.

The most preferred form of exchange was comprehensive confirmation of life status (47.8%), hometown visits (18.2%), and face-to-face reunions (16.5%). However, amid the ongoing COVID-19 situation, non-face-to-face exchanges such as phone calls, exchanging letters or video messages, and video reunions were preferred.

In particular, regarding hometown visits, 82.7% of displaced separated family members expressed a desire to visit their hometown, and among them, 65.4% also wished to visit North Korean regions other than their hometown.

Meanwhile, separated families hoped that the government would comfort their pain and raise public interest through activities such as ▲ collecting and exhibiting hometown photos and videos (34.1%), ▲ producing special broadcasts on separated families (30.4%), and ▲ invitation events for separated families (27.3%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.