S Korean, DPRK separated families' reunions enter second day

SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Reunions of separated families from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday entered its second day.

According to the arrangements, families were free to meet privately in rooms of the Mount Kumgang Hotel for two hours starting at 9 a.m. Then the families gathered at the courtyard in front of the Onjeonggak rest area for another two hours.

Participants from the South Korean side have bought bagfuls of daily necessities such as clothes and medicines, some others prepared U.S. dollars, as gifts for their long-lost relatives in the DPRK, according to local media.

The six-day reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 war, which have been agreed by South Korea and the DPRK in August, will include two back-to-back events. During the first three days, the South Koreans will be reunited with their 240 relatives in the DPRK. In the second segment, 99 elders from the DPRK side will come to meet with their 449 South Korean relatives.

Ninety-seven South Koreans, who arrived in the Kumgang resort late Saturday across the Demilitarized Zone, were seen as lucky ones, as they were selected through a computer lottery among tens of thousands of applicants.

The families will be separated again from Monday. It's the only chance, also maybe the last chance for them to meet each other.

The family reunion program began in 2000 after a historic inter-Korean summit between the two sides.

Since then, the two sides have held 16 rounds of face-to-face reunions and seven rounds of video exchanges.

The last reunions were held in October 2007. The program was suspended as ties between Pyongyang and Seoul soured after South Korea's conservative government under President Lee Myung-bak came to power in February 2008.

About 600,000 South Koreans are believed to have relatives in the DPRK. Ordinary citizens were not allowed to make phone calls, send letters or exchange e-mails across the border.