Koreas hold talks on reuniting divided families

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-27 10:09

Kim Young-chel (2nd L), chief delegate and secretary general of the ROK's Red Cross, is greeted by his DPRK counterpart Choe Song-ik upon the former's arrival at Mount Kumgang hotel in Mt. Kumgang in the DPRK August 26, 2009. Red Cross officials from the DPRK and the ROK begin three days of talks on Wednesday in a rare meeting between the two to discuss the plight of families separated after their 1950-53 Korean War. [Agencies]

SEOUL: Officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are meeting through Friday in their first talks in nearly two years on arranging reunions of families separated by the Korean War, the latest sign of easing tensions on the divided peninsula.

The three days of talks, being held at the DPRK's Diamond Mountain resort, come as Pongyang adopts a more conciliatory stance toward the ROK and the US after months of provocations including a nuclear test in May and a barrage of ballistic missile test-launches.

The two delegations, led by Red Cross officials, expressed hope their meeting would help improve inter-Korean relations. Although still at odds over the timing of the family reunions they are expected to announce an agreement on Friday.

Millions of families were separated following the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two countries technically at war. There are no mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges between ordinary citizens across the Korean border.

A landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000 paved the way for more than 16,000 Koreans to reunite with relatives in temporary reunions. The reunions were held annually but suspended in 2008 when the ROK's President Lee Myung-bak took office with a hardline policy toward Pyongyang.

The two sides last held Red Cross-brokered reunion talks in November 2007. A ROK Unification Ministry official said the delegation sent from Seoul on Wednesday included two government representatives, but could not confirm the makeup of the DPRK delegation. He requested anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The DPRK's chief Red Cross delegate Choe Song-ik expressed hope the talks were a "good opportunity to help develop North-South relations" and their humanitarian projects. His ROK counterpart Kim Young-chol also said he has "expectations for big accomplishments."

The two sides, however, still disagreed over when to stage the family reunions. Seoul wants them to be held in two stages late September and in early October, while Pyongyang demanded that both stages be held in early October, close to the Chuseok autumn harvest holiday, according to the ROK media pool reports.

Chuseok, which falls on October 3, is a major holiday for both Koreas, equivalent to Thanksgiving in the United States.

Seoul's delegation also called for Pyongyang's cooperation to help resolve the issue of the ROK's prisoners of war and civilians believed held in the country, pool reports said.

It was not immediately clear how Pyongyang reacted to Seoul's request.

The ROK estimates that about 560 soldiers from the Korean War are still alive in the DPRK, in addition to some 480 ROK civilians - mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end.

Pyongyang says the civilians voluntarily defected to the DPRK and denies holding any prisoners of war.

The reunion talks are the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures by Pyongyang toward Seoul and Washington that began early this month when former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and met with the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il, who freed two American journalists detained in the DPRK.

A subsequent meeting between the chief of the ROK conglomerate Hyundai and Kim led to the release of a ROK detainee, and a provisional agreement for the two Koreas to resume the family reunions. A government-to-government deal will still be required for the reunions to take place.

In other conciliatory moves, the DPRK has agreed to lift restrictions on border crossings with the ROK and pledged to resume suspended inter-Korean projects in tourism and industry. And last week, a DPRK delegation traveled to Seoul to mourn the death of former ROK President Kim Dae-jung, a champion of a "Sunshine Policy" toward the DPRK.