Families gather for rare North, South Korea reunion

Close to 400 South Koreans, many of them elderly and nearly all in a state of fevered anticipation, gathered Monday before crossing into North Korea for a rare reunion with separated family members.

Beginning Tuesday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, it will be only the second such reunion in the past five years -- the result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to de-escalate tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict.

Tens of millions of people were displaced by the sweep of the 1950-53 Korean War, which saw the frontline yo-yo from the south of the Korean peninsula to the northern border with China and back again.

The chaos and devastation separated brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives.

Because the conflict concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are prohibited.

The reunion programme began in earnest after a historic North-South summit in 2000, but the numbers clamouring for a chance to participate have always far outstripped those actually selected.

The 394 people gathered in Sokcho city on South Korea's northeast coast were called to the reunion by 100 North Koreans chosen to take part in the event.

All were to spend the night in the Hanwha resort in Sokcho before an early start to the heavily-fortified border nearby and then on to Mount Kumgang.