BBC News – Korea: rare family reunions take place.
Today it was on TV. North and South Koreans meet after many years apart. These meetings are so restricted and often cancelled, which means that many (most) of the 70 000 on the waiting list will never get the chance. Many of them are more than 80 years old.
My husband visited North Korea in 2012 on the 100 years’ jubileé of Kim Il Sung. The man they treat as their God. Ordinary people live in hell here. They starve and infiltrate and are sent to death or to camps never to return. A devastating experience, from which he was glad to escape in one piece. He and his company where never allowed to meet ordinary people, never allowed to walk unguarded, and only allowed to take photos when they were permitted.
At the border the guards confiscated memory cards or emptied them. My husband managed to hide one in his clothes, so the pictures are here…showing parades and city buildings. Everything is grey. I’m glad I didn’t join him on this trip.
Leya 
Very sad indeed. The son proved to be a fitting heir!!
Yes. Incredible, sad and true.
So sad, thanks for bringing it up.
Love, Dina
Yes, Dina, I don’t think there is much hope for that people – a revolution is far away and that young man in power seems to be just like his father.
Very sad circumstances that they beautiful people are forced to live under. Thank you for sharing the story of the reunion.
It makes me so sad to see how they are treated. I hope for a change even if it seems hopeless.
I can hardly bear to watch the news on the Korean family reunions; so sad that so many will not see their loved ones again.
Yes. how do these people in power think? No empathy, no thinking, no brain.
Utterly cruel.
They are inhuman.
some parts of our world just make me sad
They do.
Yes, it is very sad and this is simply distorted press for the megalomaniac in charge. Stunning still, he is in charge at all. I saw the interview with that young man who escaped prison hell. Abysmal are humankind toward one another at times… Blessings to you! xxx
It’s almost unfathomable, how a country like this still exists. I do not think the people can rise, they are held in weakness and camps, bad food or no food at all. I doubt anyone who gets out of there really can recover and have a normal life.
http://abandonedkansai.com/special-north-korea-dprk/
You know about this blog?
Have a nice evening!
No, i didn’t thank you!
We can always hope for the best …. look at the Berlin wall – people can make things happen. There is so much evil that rules parts of our world.
Let’s hope…
I can’t say I ‘like’ your story, Ann-Christine – there’s nothing to like about it other than your husband’s safe return. North Korea reminds me of the worst excesses of the Roman Empire under rulers like Caligula; when everyone’s lives were utterly miserable and it wasn’t until the army finally had enough that life could return to anything like normal. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen there …
Agree. And the camps – they are like in Germany under Hitler. Only here they are punished for three generations, so children are born in here and of course destroyed mentally from an early age. Some manage to escape, it’s from them we know.