South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met with citizens displaced from their hometowns in North Korea by the peninsula’s decades-long division on Friday, expressing hope that improvements in inter-Korean ties will allow separated families to reconnect.

The meeting took place at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory on the inter-Korean border ahead of the fall harvest holiday of Chuseok, when Koreans traditionally visit their hometowns to gather with family and honor their ancestors.

“The tensions between the two Koreas have intensified, and hostility has become so severe that there is no contact at all anymore,” Lee said on Friday. He stated he felt