REUNITING KOREA.

Reconciling the Past

Kim Ok Bae, who lives in North Korea, consoled her mother, who lives in South Korea. Mother and daughter had not seen each other in almost 50 years. "Please wait for me," Kim told her mother. "I'll come back." "But when?" 87-year-old Hong Gil Soon cried. "After I die."

Separated by war, ideology, and a heavily fortified border, the mother and daughter, along with 198 other Koreans, hugged and kissed long-lost relatives during a four-day reunion in August. One hundred South Koreans crossed the border into North Korea, and 100 North Koreans flew to Seoul, South Korea.

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il agreed to the reunion during a historic summit in June. At that meeting, the two leaders said they would work toward the eventual reunification of the two countries.

Since that meeting, North and South Korea have reopened border offices and established a telephone hotline. They have also established a railway linking the two countries. High-level talks aimed at reunification are under way.

More family reunions are planned. The reunions are at the forefront of plans to settle the political, economic, and cultural differences between the two Koreas. "Reuniting the separated families is the most important part of the efforts toward eventual reunification," said Lee Sang Man, a reunification adviser to North Korea.

Korea was divided after World War II (1939-1945). Communists controlled the north, and a democratic government controlled the south. Tensions between the two sides boiled over when North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea in 1950.

The United Nations, led by the United States, sent troops to fight the Communist North Koreans. The war ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953.

A Look at Korea

* Winter can last six months in northern North Korea. In January, the average temperature can fall below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

* More than 3,000 islands, most of which are unpopulated, dot the Korean coast. Cheju Island is the largest.

* Korea's highest mountain, Mount Paektu, rises 9,003 feet on the border of North Korea and China. Almost one-fourth of North Korea's population lives in the Northern Mountains region. North Korea's longest river, the Yalu, flows westward along the border with China for 490 miles. The Yalu empties into the Yellow Sea.

* In 1403, fifty years before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, Korean inventors printed documents using movable metal type.

* Rice is the staple food, steamed and eaten with a variety of side dishes, including kimch'i, a pickled food prepared mostly from white radishes, cabbage, and red pepper.

No Man's Land

On July 27, 1953, the Communist-led North Korean government signed an armistice, or truce, with United Nations forces, ending the Korean War. One million South Koreans died in the war. About 1.6 million Communist troops were killed or reported missing. When the armistice was signed, leaders on both sides set up a buffer zone, known as the demilitarized zone (DMZ, left), between North and South Korea. The DMZ is 2 1/2 miles wide and extends from the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan. A permanent treaty between North and South Korea has never been signed. The United States military remains in South Korea to discourage the North Koreans from attacking.