Koreas to hold talks on reviving family reunions
Print Edition
The rival Koreas have agreed to hold talks tomorrow on arranging the first reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War in more than three years, officials said yesterday.
North Korea agreed 10 days ago to restart reunions and asked South Korea to pick the date. South Korea chose February 17-22 and proposed that talks be held to discuss the details. But North Korea didn’t respond for a week, drawing complaints from South Korean officials.
Breaking its week-long silence, North Korea sent a message yesterday proposing that preparatory talks take place either tomorrow or on Thursday at a border village, and that South Korea pick the date, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry and North Korean state media.
South Korea replied that it preferred tomorrow and North Korea agreed, according to the Unification Ministry. Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do said officials will try to arrange the reunions as soon as possible.
The reunion program is one of several projects between the Koreas that have been stalled amid tensions in recent years. It is highly emotive as most applicants are in their 70s or older and want to see long-lost relatives before they die.
Millions of Koreans have been separated since the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war. They are separated by a heavily fortified border, and ordinary citizens are barred from exchanging letters, phone calls or emails.
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