North and South Korea yesterday held more talks aimed at restarting a reunion program for families separated by war 60 years ago, a move that could ease high tensions between the two sides.
However, after a day of intermittent talks in the North’s town of Kaesong, the two sides had not yet reached agreement on the venue for the reunions, Seoul’s unification ministry said.
“The two sides have been holding talks off and on, but they have not yet narrowed differences over the venue,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The North, as part of a recent series of apparent peace overtures, had proposed restarting the program after a year-long break.
The two sides first met a week ago to try to make arrangements for the reunions, which are scheduled for next month at the jointly run Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s east coast.
However, they have been unable to agree on which building to use.
The South has demanded that its purpose-built reunion center at Mount Kumgang be used, while the North has reportedly failed to specify a venue at the resort.
North and South Korea are mainly at odds over a deadly warship sinking that Seoul blames on Pyongyang, but Kumgang, which had been a lucrative source of income for the cash-strapped North, is also a source of controversy.
DEAD HOUSEWIFE
The South banned its people from visiting the resort after a North Korean soldier shot dead a visiting Seoul housewife in 2008.
Seoul wants firm safety guarantees before resuming the tours. The North has seized or sealed off the South’s buildings at Kumgang in protest at the delay.
Analysts say the North appears to be trying to use the reunions issue to persuade the South to restart the tourism program.
The North said this week it would send two officials in charge of the Kumgang project to the latest talks on family reunions, but the South, in a message to the North on Thursday, said it would not do likewise.
“It looks like the North wants to discuss how to resume the tour programs by using the family reunion talks,” said one South Korean Red Cross official who declined to be named.
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