According to the 2024 survey conducted by the Ministry of Unification, 57.2 percent of respondents said they want to see their loved ones in North Korea, down from 65.8 percent in 2021. The demand to visit their hometowns in the North dropped by 26.7 percentage points, while the demand for letter exchanges also declined by about 8 percentage points.

The survey gathered responses from 35,542 South Koreans and 475 Koreans living abroad, primarily in the U.S. They had all registered themselves on a list of people believed to have family ties in the North.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Since the first Seoul-Pyongyang summit in 2000, the two sides have held 21 rounds of in-person family reunions, including the latest one in August 2018. Since then, almost all forms of exchanges have been halted amid North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile provocations.

The unification ministry noted that the latest results reflect lowered expectations about the possibility of direct relatives in the North still surviving. It also mentioned that the survey cycle was shortened from five to three years, as more South Koreans have passed away of old age without the opportunity to reunite with their relatives in North Korea.

According to the results, 63.6 percent of those living in South Korea and 60.9 percent of those living abroad are currently over the age of 80.

Nearly 76 percent of respondents said they are unable to confirm whether their long-lost relatives are still alive in the North.

Data shows that of the 134,291 South Koreans on the waiting list for government-arranged reunions, 97,350 have passed away as of last month.

In terms of policy priorities, 77.2 percent of respondents said the most urgent need is for the government to find out if their family members in the North are still alive and to be notified when they die. About 37.5 percent requested regular family reunions, followed by letter exchanges (18.2 percent) and virtual reunions (11.8 percent). Respondents were allowed to select more than one policy priority.

In an in-depth interview with 5,103 selected participants in the latest survey, 55.3 percent of respondents expressed a desire to know whether their family members in the North are still alive. However, 19.4 percent said they no longer wish to find out.

About 14.4 percent selected in-person reunions as their preference, followed by just 3.5 percent who expressed their wishes to visit their hometowns in the North.

“We will establish and promote policies for inter-Korean separated families that better meet their demands considering changes in preferences and the aging of separated families,” a unification ministry official said.

The government designated Aug. 13 on the lunar calendar, or two days before the Chuseok holiday, as Separated Families Day in 2023 as part of broader efforts to raise awareness about the issue of separated families.

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Word, who grew up on a farm in Booneville, Ark., joined the military after he graduated from high school. And after receiving basic military training, he was given a choice to be deployed either in Europe or the Far East.

Although he didn’t even know where South Korea was, he volunteered to go there, a choice he does not regret seven decades later.

“If I had to do it again, I’ll do it all over again. I would come over here again. I really would. It’s so different here and the people are wonderful people,” he said during a joint interview with local media at a hotel in Seoul, Tuesday.

The American veteran’s most vivid memories in South Korea are the people he met in the villages. Of them, he is desperately looking for a man who he remembers as “Chang.” The 12-year-old boy often came to Word’s camp asking to do the soldiers’ laundry and shine their shoes to support his own family.

“He didn’t give in or give up. Up to this day, I’ve had thoughts and dreams and still think about him…By now, he should be in his 80s,” said Word.

Word is among the 64 foreign veterans who were invited by South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs for a six-day visit from Monday to Saturday, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1953 Armistice Agreement that halted the Korean War.

During their visit, the veterans will attend various ceremonies and programs, including a visit to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

Edward Buckner, a Korean War veteran from Canada, shows photos of a South Korean boy who he remembers as “Cho Chock Song,” during a joint interview in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Edward Buckner, a 91-year-old veteran from Canada, was also looking for a South Korean man who he remembers as “Cho Chock Song.” Although Buckner did not know his age, he assumed that the boy was younger than himself. Buckner was 19 at that time.

“He looked after our tent when we first moved into Busan while we were waiting to go up north to join the fighting. He looked after our tent and did a very good job,” he said, showing reporters photos of Cho Chock Song.

Buckner got emotional when asked about memories he has of the war.

“I was blessed because I was at brigade headquarters all the time. So I was in contact with everything, knowing what was going on,” he replied, shedding tears. “I’m so grateful that you took what you’ve got and made it what you have. It’s a beautiful country.”

Colin Thackery, a veteran from the United Kingdom, said he was amazed by how South Korea rose from the ashes of the war.

“When I got on the bus at the airport coming to Seoul for the first time, I was amazed because the last time we saw, it (the city) was flat. Now there’s just hundreds and hundreds of towers of apartment blocks,” Thackery told reporters. “Now I congratulate the (South) Korean people on the success and the prosperity that they show now.”

The 93-year-old British veteran, who rose to fame after winning “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2019, was invited to sing the Korean folk song “Arirang” during a banquet marking the 70th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement to be held in Busan on Thursday.

Thackery said he learned the song by heart preparing for Thursday’s performance, recalling the time he sang the tune with his comrades despite not knowing what the lyrics meant.

“Arirang brings a lot of memories…It’s such a pretty tune. When we were out there, we were first told that it was a lullaby. Another time, people thought it was the national anthem,” he said.

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