On Tuesday, around 400 South Korean citizens travelled to North Korea to reunite with family members that they had not seen in over six decades.

As the Associated Press reports, in August, North and South Korea agreed to resume their ongoing project to bring together families separated since the Korean War. The reunions were stopped last February, after a North Korean land mine explosion maimed two South Korean soldiers.

In South Korea, participants for the family reunions are chosen by a computerized lottery system. In North Korea, those picked to visit with their South Korean kin are chosen based on their loyalty to state leadership.

Despite the diplomatic enterprise of the reunions, the neighboring nations remain in a state of war.

Although the reunions, which are organized by the Red Cross, have been going on since 1988, their occurrence is not reliable. North Korea has been known to cancel the meetings when tension between the two nations flare up.

As Reuters reports, the reunions, which were held in a ballroom at the Mount Kumgang resort, took place in shifts.

Footage of the family reunions was broadcasted throughout South Korea. As The New York Times reports, North Korea has used the opportunity to publish a report about the reunions, which maintains that their participants explained to their South Korean relatives that they lived "happy" and "worthwhile" lives in the socialist nation.

Although Seoul has frequently requested an increase in the number of people taking part in the reunions, North Korea tends to view the much anticipated reunions as a method of bargaining.

As the families saw each other for the first time in decades, North Korea was reportedly preparing for a new nuclear test.

According to USA Today, South Korea’s spy agency says that North Korea is preparing for a nuclear test in response to what they are calling confrontational policies from the United States and its allies.