S Koreans gather for rare reunion with North relatives

Sokcho, South Korea

CLOSE to 400 South Koreans, many of them elderly and nearly all in a state of fevered anticipation, gathered on Monday before crossing into North Korea for a rare reunion with separated family members.

Beginning on Tuesday in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, it will be only the second such reunion in the past five years - the result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to de-escalate tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict.