NORTH KOREA SAID today it has agreed to South Korea’s proposal to resume reunions for families separated since the 1950-53 war, in another apparent sign of easing tensions.
The North has agreed to hold the event during the traditional Chuseok holiday that falls on 19 September as suggested by the South, Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement on official media.
It also proposed a separate round of indirect family reunions via video conference around October 4 – the anniversary of the 2007 inter-Korean summit, said the statement on the North’s official news agency.
The move came days after the South’s President Park Geun-Hye last Thursday urged Pyongyang to “open its heart” and agree to hold the first family reunions since 2010.
‘Joint efforts’
Officials of the Red Cross from both sides will meet on 23 August as proposed by Seoul to discuss details, the North said, suggesting the Mount Kumgang resort in the North as the venue for the talks.
“Now is the time for the north and the south to make joint efforts for the improvement of the north-south ties and peace and common prosperity on the Korean peninsula,” said the statement.
Seoul described Pyongyang’s offer today “positive,” but insisted that the officials’ meeting to discuss the family reunion be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom, instead of Mount Kumgang.
Kim Hyung-Suk, spokesman for the South’s unification ministry that handles cross-border affairs, said Seoul would make a decision on the proposed talks on the Mount Kumgang later after internal reviews.
Reunions
Millions of Koreans were left separated by the war, which sealed the peninsula’s division. Most have died without having had a chance to meet family members last seen six decades ago.
About 72,000 South Koreans – nearly half of them aged over 80 – are still alive and waiting for a rare chance to join the highly competitive family reunion events, which select only up to a few hundred participants each time.
At the reunions, North and South Koreans typically meet in the North for two or three days before the South Koreans – many in tears – head home again.
For those too infirm to travel, reunions via video conferencing have been arranged in recent years.
- © AFP 2013.
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