German seeks to see North Korean husband 46 years on

SEOUL, Aug 23 (Reuters) For 70-year-old German Renate Hong, a rare summit between North and South Korea in October may give her the best chance of seeing her North Korean husband for the first time in almost half a century.

Renate Kleinle and Hong Ok-gun, an exchange student in East Germany at the time, met in Jena about two hours from Berlin in 1955, fell in love and married, believing they could transcend Cold War realities and raise a family together.

One day in April 1961, their happy life came to an abrupt end when Ok-gun was given one day's notice to be on a train home to North Korea, leaving behind his wife with their 10-month-old son and another on the way.

''That was the saddest day of my life,'' Renate said of the day she wanted to go with him but, heavy with her second child, could only see off her husband at the station. He left with the promise that he would be back and she believed him.

Two years and 50 letters from North Korea later, there was suddenly no more word. ''Can Uwe stand up already?'' Hong Ok-gun asked in what would be his last letter, about their second son.

All Renate's efforts to contact her husband came back unanswered, and finally the North Korean embassy in Berlin explained that ''the country is hard at work in nation-building and the human resources who studied abroad are crucially needed''.

More than 45 years later, she has learned that her husband is still alive in North Korea, retired from a chemical factory and living with his family in the northeastern city of Hamhung.

''I'm not going to deny that my heart ached when I heard that he married again and had a family,'' she told reporters at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club. She never remarried.

Renate concedes that she no longer has a future with him. ''If I see him again, we will talk about the old days, the memories of our time together. Talking about the future would be impossible.'' Since 1961 Renate has never been so close to her husband as she was this week when she visited Seoul, about 400 km from Hamhung.

When South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun goes to Pyongyang for what will be only the second summit between the rival Koreas, Renate wants him to take her letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

''I wish my husband, Hong Ok-gun, would have a chance to see his two sons, who are now grown-ups,'' Renate wrote in the letter.

''If it is impossible for my husband to come to Germany, I would be more than happy to visit (North Korea) to meet him. Can I expect support from you, Mr Chairman?'' Kim Jong-il rules the reclusive communist state as chairman of its powerful National Defence Commission.

''I hope that this story is taken up at the summit and it gives me the chance to meet my husband,'' she said.

REUTERS AM KN1628