South Korea has proposed regular reunions of families separated by the Korean War during rare meetings between officials from the two Koreas held this week amid signs of easing tension on the peninsula, a spokesman said yesterday.
The three days of talks, which opened at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort on Wednesday, come as Pyongyang adopts a more conciliatory stance toward South Korea and the US after months of animosity over its nuclear and missile programs.
Earlier this month, the North said it would restart some joint projects including the meetings of separated families that have been stalled since the inauguration of a conservative government in South Korea about 18 months ago. Seoul officials said they considered the moves “positive” but that more talks were necessary before implementing them.
On the first day of talks, officials expressed hope that the meeting would help improve inter-Korean relations, though they were still at odds over the timing of the reunion, according to South Korean media pool reports.
Seoul wants them to be held in two stages late next month and in early October, while the North demanded that both stages be held in early October, close to the Chuseok autumn harvest holiday, the reports said.
Chuseok, which falls on Oct. 3, is a major holiday for both Koreas.
South Korean officials also proposed that the two Koreas hold more family reunions on a regular-basis and allow divided families to confirm whether their long-lost kin are still alive in a “full-fledged manner,” according to Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung. He said the North now wants to hold a one-time reunion on Chuseok.
Millions of families remain separated following the 1950-1953 Korean 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 about 20,000 Koreans to hold short reunions with relatives. The reunions were held annually but were suspended as North Korea cut off most ties in protest of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s hard-line policy toward Pyongyang.
Media reports said the differences of opinion between the two Koreas “were not big.”
“I think we can return home with a good achievement,” one unidentified South Korean delegate was quoted as saying by South Korean journalists accredited to cover the meetings.
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