Reuniting families separated by the decades-long division of the Korean Peninsula is “the most pressing task” of the South Korean government, President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday, blaming North Korea for the lack of reunions in recent years.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho read out Yoon’s remarks at an event to mark the second Separated Families Day, a commemorative day established by the Yoon government last year. 

“Three-thousand family members pass away each year without reuniting with their loved ones,” the ROK president stated in the speech, noting that only about 40,000 separated family members remain.

“Although North Korean authorities