A Korean-American's novel about her family on the divided Korean peninsula had a happy ending yesterday when she and her family were reunited with relatives from North Korea. "For my own sake, and my mother and my grandmother's sake, we had to rescue this family," said Ms Helie Lee, author of Still Life with Rice, a novel based on her family's history, including relatives in the North.
Nine North Korean family members were reunited with their relatives from the US at the royal Duksoo Palace in Seoul after arriving from "a third country".
Ms Lee's father, Mr Lee Jaehak (62), started the odyssey by asking a friend who worked for a South Korean television station in Seoul if he could track down the relatives in the North. That led to an exchange of letters between the families.
"Without my father, this mission would have been impossible," Ms Lee told a news conference. "My father has proved to be a true hero. This is a wish that I wish for every Korean who has family in the North"
Details of how the nine family members escaped from North Korea were not revealed for security reasons, but family members said they asked for help "from Chinese people".
The two families first encountered each other in April of this year, when Mr Lee and other family members, including Ms Lee's grandmother, Ms Bae Hongyong (85), travelled to China to try and make contact with their North Korean relatives.
They made it as far as the Uprok river that divides North Korea and China. But all they could do was wave to each across the river at that time, family members told the news conference.
But in August, the family of nine finally made their escape to a third country before arriving in South Korea.
"So many things could have gone wrong," Ms Lee said. "We are incredibly lucky to have made it this far."
The North Koreans arrived at the palace where their US relatives were waiting in a National Security Planning Agency van.
They immediately fell to the ground, bowing and sobbing and Mr Lee Yongwoon (63), who led the group, cried "Thank God, thank God," before they ran into the arms of their relatives.
It was the first time in 47 years - that any of the divided family members had seen each other.
Ms Lee, who left Korea when she was four, said she was inspired to write her novel after visiting the 1988 Olympics in Seoul with her grandmother, Bae.
She stayed on to do research and became curious about her northern relatives.
The former South Korean president, Mr Chun Doo-Hwan, visited Seoul's Chogye Buddhist temple yesterday, his first public appearance since being released from prison last week after almost two years behind bars.
Mr Chun (65), accompanied by his wife, two sons and three daughters-in-law, said he had come to pray for the nation's future and economic development and attended a prayer service with fellow Buddhists.
"I sincerely thank you for praying for my release. Now I am back to normal life in good health," Mr Chun told the monks at the temple at the start of a ritual 100days thanksgiving prayers.
Mr Chun, who ruled South Korea with an iron fist from 1980 to 1988, was freed from Seoul's bleak Anyang prison on Monday of last week along with fellow former president and military classmate, Mr Roh Tae-Woo.
He had been serving a life sentence for corruption and mutiny, as well as for his role in the 1980 massacre by martial law troops of some 200 pro-democracy protestors in the south-western city of Kwangju.
His amnesty was condoned by president-elect Kim Dae-Jung, one of his former victims and ordered by outgoing President Kim Young-Sam, whose government initiated the trials of Mr Chun and Mr Roh.