One 91-year-old made the 90-mile journey from his home north of Seoul by ambulance; 14 others were in wheelchairs. All were to spend the night in the Hanwha resort in the eastern port of Sokcho before heading to the heavily fortified border and then on to another resort on North Korea's Mount Kumgang.
Their highly emotional journey is the result of a hard-won agreement between both North and South Korea to resume reunions of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean war.
The programme had been suspended since 2010 when the North shelled a South Korean border island.