Hwang Rae-ha is 80 years old and despairs of ever seeing his mother again after the Korean War separated them in the 1950s.
"I want to see her one last time, but she doesn't even come to my dreams," said Hwang, a South Korean who fears she has died of old age after the war stranded her in the North along with his two sisters.
For families separated after the Korean War halted in a truce rather than a peace treaty, the only chance to reunite with loved ones can come through a lucky draw to participate in rare government-sponsored reunions.