When the Korean Red Cross and North Korea’s Red Cross Society meet on Sept. 7 to work out the details of the upcoming reunion of separated families, the issue of regularizing such reunions should be discussed as people separated by the Korea War are aging and in declining health.

According to figures provided by the Korean Red Cross, 18,799 South Koreans have met with their families separated across the border in 19 separate reunions since the first reunion was held in August 2000.

Compounding the tragedy of the separated families is that the age and the number of people who have applied for a reunion is such that at the current pace of reunions -- sporadic and dependent on the climate of the inter-Korean relations -- many of the applicants will die without ever meeting with their families living in North Korea.

The dismal prospect was revealed in a recent study showing that 82 percent of the family reunion applicants are 70 years old or older. Since the registration for reunions opened in 1988, a total of 129,698 people in South Korea have applied for reunions and 48.9 percent of them have already died. Estimating that most of the applicants would pass away within the next 25 years, the study concluded that at least 6,000 people must be reunited every year if they are to see their families at least once in their lifetime.

Most of the families separated by the war probably had no idea at the time that they may never see each other again. The individual stories of those who left behind their parents, siblings, spouses and children in the North are heart-wrenching. To deny these unfortunate victims of history a chance to meet their loved ones is tantamount to denying them their human rights. Indeed, reunions of separated families should be treated as a human rights issue, above and beyond politics.

During next week’s meeting, Seoul should insist on holding regular reunions. Convening family reunions should not hinge on the whims of Pyongyang, which tries to exploit the humanitarian issue to advance the regime’s goals. In September 2013, North Korea abruptly canceled a family reunion only days before it was scheduled to take place, protesting the annual joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise. One can only imagine the disappointment and heartache of those whose hopes of meeting their loved ones, quite possibly for the first and last time, were crushed so cruelly.

In addition to regular reunions at a permanent site, the two side should resume video reunions initiated in 2005 which resulted in 3,748 people meeting their families via video on seven separate occasions before North Korea unilaterally terminated the program in November 2007. Resumption of exchange of letters between separated families, suspended since 2003, should also be put on the table.

Pyongyang should not attempt to use the upcoming reunion, or any future reunion for that matter, as a bargaining chip. Specifically, it should be made to realize that the resumption of Mount Geumgangsan tours, suspended after a South Korean tourist was killed by North Korean gunfire, and lifting of economic sanctions, in place since 2010 as retaliation for the North Korean attack on a South Korean naval vessel, are not up for negotiation with the proposed family reunion as a bargaining chip.