South Korean Bae Sun-ok (L) meets with her DPRK brother Bae Sang Man during the separated family reunions at Mount Kumgang resort, DPRK, October 24, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

The participants, mostly in their 80s and 90s, would receive medical check-ups and education on dos and don'ts in the DPRK territory. They spent the night in a Sokcho resort, before heading for the reunion venue in the North Saturday morning.

As with the first stage, the elderly South Koreans will be given just 12 hours of face time with their DPRK relatives, who they have never seen since the Korean War ended with armistice in 1953. Since the war, no civilian exchange of letters and telephone calls has been allowed between people of the two Koreas.

The humanitarian event was agreed between the two Koreas in late August when top-level military officials met to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula which had been put in danger of an armed conflict.