SEOUL?he second inter-Korean family reunions, which have left both Koreas in tears once again, ended, as one family member put it, ``as if walking through a cloud.亮 On Dec. 2, a total of 200 family members from South and North Korea, who visited each other? capital cities to see their kin for the first time in 50 years, left them behind and headed home.

Before her departure from Pyongyang? Koryo Hotel to the airport, Kim Sam- rye, 73, bid farewell to her son, Kang Hee-keun, 49, who was one of the South Korean fishermen allegedly abducted by North Koreans in 1987 while fishing in the Yellow Sea. ``Don? worry about me, and tell my son (in South Korea) that father is well,亮 said the teary-eyed Kang.

It was the first time that one of the 487 South Koreans who were ``abducted亮 by North Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War met with kin from the South. The South Korean government, careful of the political impacts excessive media coverage on Kang would have, asked the South Korean press not to disclose Kang? story before the meeting.

North Korea maintains that there are no abductees in its territory, and that Kang chose to stay in the North after his ship, Tongjin 27, trespassed onto North Korean waters and got caught by authorities.

Yu Tu-hi, who was the oldest among the South Korean delegation in Pyongyang at the age of 100, also said goodbye to her son Shin Tong-kil, 75.

``Go well, mother, we will be able to live together after Korea is reunified,亮 Shin said.``I leave now, go along now, go along,亮 she said, pushing her son away from her wheelchair.

``I am so disheartened,亮 said Han Chong-eun, 83, also in a wheelchair, being helped by nephews. Han was unable to meet her sick sister in Pyongyang.

At the Lotte World Hotel in southern Seoul, the departing scene was no less poignant. The difference was that there were more people, as many families brought their whole family of 10 or 20 together for the last meeting, held at the parking lot of the hotel. Many toted cellular phones and struck up last-minute conversations with their kin on their way to the airport.

The departure of the North Korean delegation was delayed, not due to a fog this time as on Nov. 30, but due to last-minute friction between the South Korean press and North Korean authorities, as the latter protested the ``biased亮 coverage of the second family reunions by the conservative Chosun Ilbo.

Four hours behind schedule, a North Korean Koryo Air flight finally took off from Pyongyang? Sunan Airport, carrying 151 South Koreans, and 135 North Koreans returned to Pyongyang aboard the jet at 4 p.m.

Summing up the three-day reunion, one day shorter than the first one held on Aug. 15-18, experts as well as separated family members voiced unanimously that while the reunions themselves were successful in strengthening reconciliation and rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, a more fundamental approach is needed to resolve the issue of dispersed families.

``How can we provide the 107,000 people who filed applications for reunions with chances to see their relatives, when we are arranging reunions for only 200 people at a time?亮 said Pong Do-wan, head of the South Korean delegation.
Talk of setting up a permanent meeting point for separated families on Mt.
Kumgang or the truce village of Panmunjom is already under way between the two Koreas, as well as allowing correspondence. At the fourth inter-Korean ministerial and Red Cross talks, slated for Dec. 12-15 and Dec. 13-15, respectively, both measures were expected to be discussed.

In the meantime, the schedule for the third inter-Korean reunions of separated families, which had been originally set for Dec. 5-7, will have to be rescheduled. The second reunion was delayed by four weeks due to North Korea? insufficient preparations.
ssm@koreatimes.co.kr