Inter-Korean exchanges resumed when North Korea proposed to provide humanitarian aids to South Korea which was hit with devastating floods in 1984. The historic first family reunion took place in 1985. But the mid-air explosion of the Korean Air flight in 1987, North Korean nuclear crisis, and the sudden death of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung caused tension to mount between the two countries, leaving the separated family issue unattended.  

Following President Kim Dae-jung’s Berlin Declaration in 2000, the first inter-Korean summit takes place and the two sides agree on terms and conditions for family reunions through the June 15th Joint Declaration. However, North Korea’s nuclear tests and rising military tension forced reunions to halt again. Reunions resumed after the April 27th Panmunjom Declaration in 2018 but again suspended following the fruitless 2019 U.S.-DPRK summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

As of February 2025, only 27% of roughly 134,000 family reunion applicants are still living and most of them are 80 or older. Moreover, a growing number of North Koreans are defecting to South Korea, creating new separated families. This issue should be resolved humanely, irrelevant to politics. This is an urgent issue that can no longer be put off.