President Lee Jae Myung said Saturday that the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War must be addressed as a "top priority" between the two Koreas. Lee made the remark in a speech read on his behalf by Second Deputy National Security Adviser Lim Woong-soon at a ceremony marking the third Separated Families Day. "Unfortunately, inter-Korean relations are currently mired in deep distrust, but the issue of separated families remains the top priority that South and North Korea must work together to resolve," he said. On Friday, Lee also met with elderly people who fled to South Korea from the North during the war, urging Pyongyang to consider allowing the separated families to confirm the fate of their relatives. In 2013, South Korea designated two days before the Chuseok fall harvest holiday as a commemorative day for separated families.