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Korean Family Reunions "a Big Success": Kim Dae-Jung
South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung on Saturday hailed this week's reunions of Korean families divided for decades by the North-South border as "a big success"
In an interview in Seoul with the US CNN television channel, Kim said he was "very happy that it has come to an end without any major incidents. I was very touched to see the families to reunite."
"This has been a spiritual agony for these families for half a century," the South Korean leader said, after the two hundred Koreans said painful farewells to their relatives on Friday following four days of brief reunions, unsure whether they would ever see their new-found family members again.
"It was an unprecedented situation around the world for ten million people to remain divided for half a century," Kim told CNN.
"This is uncomparable to other human sufferings like poverty, or such matters."
Asked whether he could foresee a reunified Korean peninsula in his lifetime Kim replied: " I hope so. But I am not confident. For unification, it'll take ten years at the least, twenty, thirty years more likely."
A group of 100 South Koreans returned to Seoul Friday after spending four days in North Korea as part of a historic exchange of visits by separated families.
DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il has already approved new exchanges in September and October.
South Korea has suggested building a "peace house" in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone dividing the peninsula, where regular reunions can be arranged and mail exchanged.
The South Korean government estimates 7.6 million people in the South have relatives in the North, and nearly 77,000 people applied to make the trip to Pyongyang.
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