Three out of ten applicants for family reunions with long lost relatives in North Korea are found to have died.

The Unification Ministry says over 127-thousand-200 applied with the government's separated families data center from 1988 to late last month and that 28 percent of them or some 35-thousand-480, have passed away.

A majority 74 percent of applicants are aged above 70 and an increasing number are expected to die every year.

Some two to four-thousand reunion applicants die each year. The near 28 percent death rate among total applicants as of late last month is up from 18 percent in July 2004.

But inter-Korean reunions are unlikely to be held for the time being due to strained cross border ties. So the government plans to comfort the applicants in events in Seoul and other provinces timed with the August 15th Independence Day celebration.