Decades after the Korean War tore them apart, a 92-year-old woman and her son met each other once again in a reunion marked with tears and hope.

Lee Keum-seom, who is from South Korea, travelled to meet her North Korean son, Lee Sung-chul, for the first time in 68 years. She was separated from him and her husband during the Korean War and they were subsequently trapped on different sides.

In the video (above) of the reunion posted by CNN, Keum-seom is seen flinging herself into her 72-year-old son’s arms immediately on seeing him. Sung-chul showed his mother a photo of her husband (and his father), who had died.

Theirs was one of several emotional reunions that took place in a resort in North Korea – the first such reunion in three years. Eighty-nine South Koreans, mostly elderly people, were chosen by a lottery. However, the reunions were temporary and they were only allowed to spend a few hours together during each of the three days, that too under heavy surveillance.