Seoul and Pyongyang plan to finalize by Saturday a list of 100 people from each side who will participate in the reunion for families separated by the Korean War.
The reunion event to be held from August 20 to 26, is a follow-up on the agreements made between the Republic of Korea's (ROK) President Moon Jae-in and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un during their summit in April.
Fewer than 60,000 remain
The lucky few are just a fraction of the 59,037 surviving ROK's registered family members, according to the Ministry of Unification (MOU) statistics published in January.
While 2017 witnessed 194 new applicants, at least 4000 of existing registered members passed away in 2017, said the MOU.
The decline is likely to continue with an increasingly aging population of registered participants.
About 130,000 ROK individuals were initially registered as members of separated families, however, Korea Red Cross said half have already passed away, 67% of them dying at the age of 80 or older.
The MOU's data showed a total of 61.7% of individuals on the registered list as of 2017 were 80 or older, with 18.9% aged 90 or over.
Only 15% of those on the list are 60 or younger.
In the ROK, hopeful participants are picked at random by a computer which takes into account their age and family background. They also sit for interviews and take medical examinations to determine if they are fit to travel.
The DPRK is believed to give priority to people deemed loyal to the government when making its selection for participants.
The 21st face-to-face chance
In today's world, it costs nothing to talk to someone anywhere in the world but for two Korea's separated families; the chance to talk or meet with own family members is similar to winning the lottery.
There have only been 20 brief reunions events since the end of the war in 1953.
Thus, the reunions are painfully brief, lasting only a few days before the families are separated once again.
For the last round of reunion in October 2015, only 100 ROK's people were chosen and of those, 10 have since died or become too ill to travel.
The meetings are limited to six two-hours.
The ROK's side has approved 2.93 million U.S. dollars for family reunions last month and a team of officials, businesses, and workers has also been dispatched to the Kumkangsan area since July 9 to work on repairing the reunion venue.
However, on July 20th the DPRK's side threatened to cancel the planned reunion event unless the ROK would return some of its citizens who arrived in the ROK in recent years.
Seoul's MOU did not make any comments on it while ROK's National Human Rights Commission later announced plans to investigate the matter.
