There are thought to be currently 79,258 members of divided families in South Korea, 78% of whom are 70 years old or more. However, only 8.4% have been able to confirm whether their family members in the North are still alive.<\/p>\n
According to a joint survey conducted by Metrics for the Ministry of Unification and Korea National Red Cross between April and November, of 128,000 cases of separated families filed, 49,395 are now deceased. 6.3% of the remaining 79,258 are 90 years old or older, 36.6% are 80-90, and 35.1% are more than 70.<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted according to the \u2018Law on Confirming the Existence of Separated Families and Promoting Exchanges\u2019, enacted in March, 2009, with the target being those separated families registered with the \u2018Integrated Information System for Separated Families\u2019, which was launched in 1999 under the same law.<\/p>\n
Among the respondents, 13.3% ordinarily live alone and 2.3% live alone because they have no remaining family; 6.2% are receiving National Basic Living Security Benefit, almost twice the rate in the overall population (3.2%).<\/p>\n
Only 8.4% of the separated families have been able to determine whether their family in North Korea is alive or dead. For those who have done so, the main methods are: \u25b2 through relatives in Japan or China (37.7%); \u25b2 Red Cross exchange events (31.4%); and \u25b2 exchange organizations (4.1%). <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, even assuming they could confirm the whereabouts of their remaining family, only 78.7% said they would like to meet them, and 21.3% said they would not. The reasons for not wanting to meet included: \u25b2 a death on the North Korea side (33.8%) \u25b2 the cost of exchanges (17.8%) \u25b2 already lost contact (9.8%).<\/p>\n
Revealing the data yesterday, a Ministry of Unification official said, \u201cIn collaboration with the Korean National Red Cross we will produce a \u2018Basic Plan for Promoting Separated Family Exchanges\u2019 next year to try and resolve the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, the official continued, \u201cWe are going to great pains to figure out the best way to be able to have a reunion next year, and once the possible conditions are set, we will suggest a reunion of separated families.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, one probable sticking point is bound to be North Korea\u2019s cynical demands for rice and other economic support in exchange for family reunions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are thought to be currently 79,258 members of divided families in South Korea, 78% of whom are 70 years old or more. However, only 8.4% have been able to confirm whether their family members in the North are still alive. According to a joint survey conducted by Metrics for the Ministry of Unification and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":17626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n