Inter-Korean Family Reunions Begin on North Korea’s East Coast

Here is an update on the Inter-Korean family reunions that the North Koreans are currently holding at the Kumgang Resort on the country’s east coast:

The first session of reunions will be followed by a dinner to be hosted by the North Korean side later in the day.

Some of them appeared to be a little uncomfortable at first, apparently reflecting the decades without contact, but the awkwardness soon melted away and they engaged in conversation, asking each other about how they have lived.

On the second day, the families will be granted more time to meet, helping them become closer. They will see each other again Tuesday morning and have lunch together in their hotel rooms, the first time the separated families will have had such a private meeting since the start of the reunion event.

They will have six meetings totaling 11 hours by Wednesday, according to the unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affair.

In subsequent reunions planned to take place from Friday to Sunday, 83 North Koreans will also meet their relatives found to be alive in the South. More than 300 South Koreans will travel to the venue later this week for the event.

The two rounds of family reunions are a follow-up on an agreement the leaders of South and North Korea reached in April to address humanitarian issues arising from nearly seven decades of division caused by the Korean War.

The event came amid a thaw in relations between the two Koreas after a yearslong hiatus and tensions heightened by the North’s continued pursuit of nuclear and missile programs.  [Yonhap]

You can read much more at the link, but I have to wonder how much money was transferred to host this event?  Family reunions has long been used by the Kim regime as a bargaining chip to get what they want from the ROK and a cottage industry to make money.  We know that South Korea had to renovate the Kumgang Resort for the North Koreans.  How much did that cost?