A woman in her 50s, separated from her family at the age of two, reunited with her family after 55 years.
Seoul Gangnam Police Station announced on the 20th that Lee (57), who had lost contact with family members, was reunited with Lee's mother and sister through DNA analysis.
The mother, who was younger than Lee's current daughter when they parted, has now turned 91.
According to the police, in Nov. 1968, Lee, the struggling mother in severe financial difficulty, left the youngest daughter of four siblings at the home of an acquaintance in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. However, contact with the daughter was lost five years later when the acquaintance moved.
The daughter, originally surnamed Hong, could not return to the family and had her surname changed to Lee, along with receiving a new resident registration number. Consequently, the family could not ascertain whether Lee was alive.
The family reunion after 55 years was possible thanks to the 'gene registration system' operated by the Korean National Police Agency since 2004 to find long-term missing persons.
Daughter Lee became aware of this system belatedly in March 2019 and registered DNA at the Gangnam Police Station. Coincidentally, Lee's mother also registered DNA at Pohang Nambu Police Station in Gyeongbuk last May, leading to a family reunion at Gangnam Police Station the day before, following DNA analysis by the National Forensic Service.
Mother Lee reportedly burst into tears, hugging Lee's daughter as soon as they met.
Mother Lee asked repeatedly how Lee had been and said, "I'm sorry." In response, daughter Lee noted, "I found my mother and family, whom I dreamed of even in my dreams, like a miracle."