few people in the world know that Korea is a large concrete wall in the 38 parallel, which was built by the United States of America during the Korean War finished.This wall divided hundreds of times greater than that which existed in Germany and separated Korean families, siblings, parents … The nation is divided, because the U.S. dominates the South and maintains an army to prevent 40,000 soldiers, Korean People’s Union [sic] “(on the website of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
Introduction
Kumgangsan or Mount Kumgang, is a mountain 1638 meters high in the south of North Korea, less than 50 km from the international border. Commonly called Diamond Mountain is one of the meanings of Kumgang was “a strong heart, the truth to face.” In light of what happened to Kumgangsan, the significance his name particularly poignant. For Kumgangsan, or more precisely, Kumgangsan tourist region, is the meeting point for Korean families were separated by the division of their country in 1953, implacable in two ideological units torn, North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic Korea) [1]. Although discussions took place between the military and other parties from time to time, especially since the 1990s there were numerous raids and border disputes over the years, especially by Pyongyang (the capital of Korea launched North) and tensions in the recent years because of the nuclear and missile programs of North increases unattended.
Kumgangsan tourist region is a separate government of North Korea established in 2002 to manage the South Korean tourism to the mountain. The South Koreans were allowed to visit the region since 1998 and the station was built by the South Korean government and private enterprises to tourism in 2010 to serve the site has been managed jointly by both parties. In addition to the center of family reunification, including the complex is a hotel, a golf course, a fire station and a duty-free shop. Originally there were tourists from cruise ships, but now there is a road that goes through the DMZ.
Kumgangsan is the second highest mountain in North Korea. Known for its natural beauty, is the area around it is characterized by bluffs and fantastically shaped rocks, waterfalls, lagoons, water and Buddhist temples and hermitages.
In July 2008, subject to South Korea all trips to the station after a tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier while they wandered unwittingly into a military zone. As after about 18 months, the visits were not resumed, took North Korea, the characteristics of the South Korean train station and threatened to freeze them. He also said it would not be a family gathering, renewed by the visits were (even if a meeting held in September 2009 that generates two years after the last in October 2007). The ratio of dollars per year by the visits essential to the economy of the country strangled [2]. After long negotiations and despite the sinking of a South Korean naval corvette with a crew of 46, Mars and a shooting agreed in October 2010, North Korea to two family reunion permit in October / November in early 2010, but according to the monthly meeting at the front desk of the South hundreds of thousands of tons of rice and fertilizer. North Korea is using the family to receive the economic benefits, and if instead of that aid was sent to Pyongyang.
Family Reunion
One of the consequences of the conflict for decades between the two Koreas was the separation of families. About one million Koreans were divided when the border was drawn and sealed in 1953 . hundreds of thousands as refugees during the fighting and tens of thousands of thousands of South fled emigrated before the outbreak of the war are desperate to find work to support their starving families in the North. Some South Korean soldiers and sailors were abducted by North Korea over the years . mail and telephone communication between the citizens of the two Koreas is prohibited. However, to America, was Jason Kim, his grandfather, who was caught after leaving his brothers and sisters dying of hunger in the North before the war to work in to find the South to visit the post office every day of his life in the hope of a sign of life, if only briefly -.. – At Kumgangsan tourist region [3]
Some families have the chance to join a successful had this meetings are extremely rare – fewer than 20,000 people since 2000, when a tentative agreement was reached at a historic high -. and tend to be endangered or revoked in the event of an escalation of tensions between the two parties more than 80,000 South Koreans and an unknown have number of North Koreans used to participate in family meetings have, 40,000 since died or given up all hope. The chosen few are usually decided by lot (in the south, at least the selection in the north is unknown). Only a few (about 550 families) were collected by the videos. organized for October / early November 2010 meetings of the Red Cross, were more than 400 South Koreans a little less than 100 parents from the north to the first allowed to join, while 130 South Koreans s were selected, “along with 200 family members from North Korea in the second. [4]
Meetings strictly regulated, monitored and filmed last 3-6 days, the time during this period will be allocated, especially in the restaurant center for family gatherings, where they numbered tables, men in suits and women sit in traditional Korean clothes hanbok made of silk. Many were crying on the shoulders of each other, but just in the space of others in a state of shock, more than six decades of separation is too large for them to cross a bridge. Families are not allowed to spend the night together. Many participants are in their eighties or nineties and see this as a last chance to meet their relatives before they die. The South Koreans bring with them food parcels, medicines and clothing, and goods that are desperately needed in the north. However, a certain convergence meeting with trepidation as they heard stories of non-relatives in Northern upsetting, as members of the long-lost family so they can get packages southerners.
The “Big Brother” surveillance increases the awkwardness of the meetings already unpleasant. In October 2010 reunion, as they endured the hardships in the North 71 years would be to have Jong-Woo Hye her 96 years old mother of Kim Jong-Lye disclosed last saw her when she was 10 or 11 years? And Kim Jong Lye would like the differences between their lives by emphasizing the relative frequency in the south more? What was happening in the mind of Kim Dong-Yul, his wife and daughter of two years in the North left in 1949 to come with the intention again and ready in the south, the retired 82 years, to embrace his daughter, even now a retired sixty years later. According to South Korean Lee Sun-ok widow, aged 80, she was willing to die without regret, after meeting with his two younger sisters and a brother in the North Meeting in September 2009, about 200 families. temples
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