It has been revealed that three out of four separated families in South Korea are unsure as to the whereabouts of their family members in North Korea, or even whether they are still alive. As the average age of applicants searching for their separated family members exceeded 80 for the first time this year, there is also growing demand for the government to take practical measures to address the issue.
The Ministry of Unification released the ‘2016 Survey Results on Separated Families’ on December 22. The survey was conducted on 6,142 people who were selected as a sample group out of 51,174 applicants. According to the results, 76.3% of the respondents answered that a standard search to determine whether their family is still alive should be a policy priority. The second and third most important measures to be taken were ‘facilitating regular family reunions (10.3%)’ and ‘arrangements for the exchange of letters between the two Koreas (4.0%).’
The families selected for the sample group were also asked about their opinions on the current state of affairs for family reunions and related policies.
77% of the respondents answered that private exchanges should be permitted and pursued in promoting family reunions. Among those respondents, 52.4% answered that private exchanges should be allowed, while allowing public exchanges to remain the primary method of meeting. Although 24.6% of respondents answered that civic exchanges should be revitalized, 20.9% of respondents countered that civic exchanges should be restricted in order to actively promote the public exchanges.
Regarding their willingness to participate in civic exchanges, 46.5% responded that they do not intend to participate, while 38.5% expressed an intention to participate. Those who were not in favor of civic exchanges cited reasons including the economic burden in preparing for such meetings (36.5%), and safety issues (10.6%).
In regards to the order of priority for family reunion policies, determining whether family members in the North are still alive (86.2%) was the most common answer, followed by family reunion meetings (76.7%), letter exchanges (70.1%), and hometown visits (61.7%).
The respondents also answered that the South Korean government should support separated families and increase public awareness through collecting and preserving separation records (39.5%), promoting art and culture regarding the stories of separated families (19.2%), and increasing the number of events held to support separated families (14.6%).
The survey was conducted from April 1 to October 28 with the objective of investigating the opinions of separated family members on the current status of family exchanges and related policies. As of April this year, among the 130,887 applicants officially searching for their separated family members, 66,025 have died and 64,462 remain alive.
The Ministry of Unification announced that the survey, the first in five years, will help to enhance the accuracy of its data on separated families by confirming application documents and correcting missing or modified data with regards to separation histories, family composition, addresses, phone numbers, and photos of missing family members.
Among the separated family members applying for a family reunion, 66.1% were male while only 33.9% were female. Regarding the applicants’ age groups, people in their 80s (43.9%) comprised the largest proportion, followed by people in their 70s (28.2%), 90s (12.0%) and 60s (10.4%). Additionally, 57% of the applicants were residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification stated, “Based on the survey results, the ministry will create various solutions to increase exchanges for separated families who are aging. We will try to integrate the responses of the applicants into a basic plan and policies for family reunion meetings between the two Koreas.
“Many separated families are hoping for a project to preserve their records. So the ministry will try to address this as much as possible in next year’s plan, We also plan to make more video messages next year, as we did this year,” the spokesperson added.
