North Korea demolishing family reunion center, Seoul says
North Korea is demolishing a venue that for decades hosted tearful reunions of families separated by the Korean War and the division of the country, Seoul said Thursday.
The reunions at the North's Mount Kumgang, last held in 2018, were a testament to the devastating human cost of the Korean Peninsula's division. But the meetings were subject to the vagaries of inter-Korea politics and often used as a negotiating tool by Pyongyang.
"The demolition of the Mount Kumgang Reunion Center is an inhumane act that tramples on the earnest wishes of separated families," a spokesperson for Seoul's unification ministry said. South Korea "sternly urges an immediate halt to such actions" and "expresses strong regret."
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