( CNN ) -- Kim Byung-ki has just seen his sister for the first time in 59 years , a sibling he thought was dead until last year . They reunited over the weekend for the first time since the Korean War tore apart their family . Kim , his sister and Kim 's son started crying immediately on seeing one another , said Kim 's son , Kim Jong-hwa . They could n't stop . The family took part in family reunions that began October 30 and will end Friday at Mount Kumgang , the two Koreas ' joint mountain resort in the North . Many burst into tears at the reunions , which involve 100 people from each side . Elderly men in suits and women in traditional Korean silk hanbok dresses sat at numbered tables in a large restaurant . Some sat , spoke and exchanged photographs ; others simply looked bewildered as they clutched hands and stared into faces unseen for six decades . The relatives have been separated from since the 1950-53 Korean War . `` After a while , my father said they need to stop crying and smile , so the memories of the meeting could be better . He said they should say goodbye smiling , not crying . It was hard to see that , '' Kim Jong-hwa said . Kim 's father was n't immediately available for comment . `` We were very happy to meet her and learn about how she had lived , '' Kim Jong-hwa said of his aunt . `` I felt relieved to hear she had worked as a nurse and later became a doctor , that probably means she had a better life '' than many North Koreans . `` Still , it broke my hear to see her and think of the difficulties she might have gone through , '' Kim said . `` She told us that when the North and South Korean family meetings started , she was upset that no one in her family had looked for her , '' he said . `` It was a shock for us to hear she felt that way , '' Kim said . `` We did our best to explain to her we thought she had died during the war and that we would have tried to look for her , had we known she was still out there . When she left , she said she understood , but I wondered what she really thought and how she really felt . '' The elder Kim had not seen his sister since 1951 , when she was 15 years old . He was a police officer during the war and often was away from home . When he returned one day , `` She was gone . I asked where she was and she had been kidnapped [ by North Korean soldiers ] . After that , we did n't know where she was , '' Kim said . `` My mother was just waiting for her to get back . She was old . She could n't go out to look for her . Even if she wanted , she did n't even know where she could search , '' Kim added . `` It was a vague hope . She wondered , will it be today ? Will it be tomorrow ? She just waited . '' Kim 's wife , Kwon Bong-sook , shared her memories of those traumatic years : . `` All the family was alive then . Three generations lived at the house and people waited for her to come back . '' `` But time passed , we were n't able to think . There were shootings , bombs , the men went to the army . ... I did n't even know if my husband was alive . '' `` Life was hard then . That was how we lived then . My brother and my father were also gone . Everything was taken from us . We did n't have food . '' `` There were bombs . It was not a proper life . We just tried to survive . After this , we thought she died . We could have never imagined she survived . '' Last year , the South Korean Kim got word through government channels that his sister was alive , in North Korea . No mail , telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border , so the siblings pinned their hopes on the government-sanctioned reunions . Millions of Koreans were divided by the war . It ended in a truce , but without a formal peace treaty . The prickly relationship between the countries has since had periodic conciliatory moves and flare-ups . Some 80,000 South Koreans have registered with their government to join one of the infrequent reunions , but 40,000 people are thought to have passed away or given up hope , according to the South 's Ministry of Unification . Numbers are unknown in the secretive North . The first family reunions took place following a landmark summit between the two Koreas in 2000 . Since then , 17,100 people representing 3,500 families have been reunited on 17 separate occasions . Journalist Manisha Tank contributed to this report .
Until last year , Kim Byung-ki thought his sister was dead . He had not seen her since she disappeared at age 15 . The siblings were divided by the Korean War . The South Korean man reunited with his sibling over the weekend .