Hundreds of elderly South Koreans bid tearful farewell to their North Korean relatives before returning home after three days of short reunions.

The family reunions were interrupted Friday afternoon after Pyongyang protested a remark by a South Korean official accompanying the South Korean delegation to the Mount Geumgang resort.

Reunions resumed after Seoul delivered a written apology to Pyongyang early Saturday morning for the South Korean official's critical remark, and promised to make sure that any such a thing would not happen again in the future.

North Korea angrily interrupted the reunions Friday after the South Korean official said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il came from a lowly social class.

It was the first time reunions of separated families were halted since reunions were first held on August 15, 2000.

Four hundred-91 South Koreans traveled to the North's scenic mountain resort Thursday over a land route for three days of reunions with their 100 relatives from North Korea.

Earlier this week, a similar number of separated family members from the two Koreas were reunited at the mountain resort on North Korea's east coast across the border.

This week's reunions were the ninth since the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.