North and South Korea agreed yesterday to hold a new round of reunions next month for families long separated by the Korean War in the latest sign of easing tensions on the divided peninsula. The planned meetings will be the first in nearly two years.
Red Cross officials from the two sides wrapped up three days of talks at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort with an accord to hold six days of temporary reunions involving a total of 200 families from Sept. 26 at the scenic resort, a joint statement said.
Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border.
This week’s rare talks and the resulting agreement are the latest signs of improving relations between the two rival nations. The agreement said the North and the South would continue to discuss the separated families and other humanitarian issues.
North Korea has been pushing in recent weeks to reach out to Seoul and Washington following a series of provocations, including nuclear and missile tests, and international sanctions to punish the communist regime for the defiant moves banned under UN resolutions.
Earlier this month, the North freed two American journalists and a South Korean worker after more than four months of detention and pledged to restart some joint projects, including the meetings of separated families that have been stalled since the inauguration of a conservative government in Seoul about 18 months ago.
The North also sent a delegation to Seoul to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
South Korean media reported earlier this week that Pyongyang invited Washington’s two top envoys on North Korea to visit in what would be their first nuclear talks since US President Barack Obama took office.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters on Thursday that the US has not received a formal invitation from the North.
He also said special envoy Stephen Bosworth plans to travel to Asia soon, but won’t go to North Korea.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported yesterday that four North Korean officials visited the US last week to meet with US relief organizations and discuss the resumption of food aid to the impoverished nation. But their trip did not include meetings with US government officials, Yonhap said, citing unidentified sources in Washington.
Following their first-ever summit in 2000, the two Koreas had regularly held family reunions until late 2007. Then, their ties frayed badly after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office last year with hardline policies such as linking aid to Pyongyang’s disarmament.
That angered the North, prompting it to suspend reconciliation talks and major joint projects.
More than 16,000 Koreans have been united in temporary face-to-face reunions so far, while some 3,740 others saw their long-lost relatives in video reunions.
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