South Korean families who took part in the first three-day session of inter-Korean family reunions have safely returned home.
 
Three-hundred-89 family members who left North Korea's Mount Geumgang resort earlier Thursday crossed the military demarcation line around 3:30 p.m. and returned to the South through the Inter-Korean Transit Office in Goseong, Gangwon Province.
 
Eighty-three-year-old Yeom Jin-rye was transported home by ambulance, but no major health concerns arose for the other elderly participants.
 
Before departure, South Korean families held their final farewell meetings with 141 North Korean relatives at the Mount Geumgang reunion center from 9:30 a.m. for about two hours. 
 
South Korean family members held the hands of their relatives through bus windows, some crying loudly, as the North Koreans departed first. 
 
Following the first three-day session, 255 South Korean participants will gather in Sokcho, Gangwon Province Friday for the second session of reunions with 188 of their North Korean kin. 
 
The second session will follow the same protocol as the first session, lasting for three days.