Koreas Agree on First Family Reunions in 2 Years in Sign of Thawing Ties

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea agreed last week to again hold reunions for families separated by the Korean War more than half a century ago, to be the first in nearly two years, in a sign of thawing cross-border ties.

The sides reached the agreement on their third and final day of talks on Aug. 28 at the North's Mt. Kumgang resort.
The countries released a joint statement setting a new round of family reunions
for Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, shortly before the traditional Korean holiday of Chuseok.
Arranged by the Red Cross offices on both sides, they are to be held at the
scenic mountain on North Korea's east coast.
The agreement was one of the latest signs that North Korea may be shifting
towards reconciliation with the South. A visit by a North Korean delegation to
Seoul following the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the
normalization of cross-border traffic near the Kaesong joint industrial park
shortly after the reunion talks have also signaled that relations may be warming
on the peninsula.
Also on Aug. 28, during the negotiations, North Korea said it would return four
South Korean fishermen captured after their boat went astray on July 30.
Pyongyang delivered on that promise the following day, removing another hurdle
for the future of inter-Korean ties.
But the two sides made little progress over the contentious issue of war
prisoners and missing civilians. Seoul has pushed for locating prisoners from the
1950-53 Korean War and civilians who were allegedly detained by the North during
the Cold War era -- mostly fishermen whose boats had strayed into North Korean
waters -- but those issues were excluded from the joint statement. Pyongyang kept
the negotiations narrowly focused on the main agenda item of setting the
schedule.
Seoul estimates about 1,000 former prisoners and other South Koreans are still
alive in the North, though Pyongyang says it is not holding anyone against their
will.
"These were the first Red Cross talks under this administration. It's been so
long, and we tried hard to produce good results, but not everything came out the
way we'd intended," Kim Young-chel, South Korea's chief delegate to the talks and
secretary general of the Red Cross Society in Seoul, told pool reporters.
The reunion event will run for three days and bring together 100 relatives from
either side of the border. During the traditional Chuseok holiday period that
falls on the first week of October this year, Koreans return to their rural
hometowns to give thanks to their ancestors and celebrate the fall harvest.
About 600,000 South Koreans are believed to have relatives in the North. Ordinary
citizens are not allowed to make phone calls, send letters or exchange e-mails
across the border.
In a follow-up measure, Red Cross offices of the two Koreas exchanged the names
of 200 candidates for the family reunions on Sept. 1, but officials at South
Korea's Red Cross were still receiving phone calls and visits from separated
family members who want to apply.
North Korean media reported the news of the agreement. In a dispatch on the
reunions, the official Korean Central News Agency said the Koreas will continue
talks on the humanitarian issues "from the standpoint of developing inter-Korean
relations."
Choson Sinbo, a newspaper in Japan that reflects North Korea's official position,
ran a report Aug. 27 saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has decided to break
the impasse in inter-Korean relations. The upcoming family reunions "will be a
new watershed in improving inter-Korean relations," the report said. "With the
(North Korean) supreme leader's resolution in August this year, a breakthrough
has been made in the inter-Korean stalemate."
Experts in Seoul said the reunion accord has offered a fresh ray of hope that
Seoul and Pyongyang will be able to mend their ties. But they stressed the two
nations still have a long way to go if they hope to restore the conciliatory mood
seen during Seoul's past two liberal adminstrations -- especially given South
Korea's commitment to United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea for its
recent nuclear and missile tests.
"We can read the agreement as a virtual resumption of talks between the two
governments," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk
University in Seoul. "It is the first achievement for the Lee Myung-bak
government within the inter-Korean context."
Kim was guarded in optimism, however, saying that any thaw will have to come in
the context of progress on North Korea's nuclear issue and the country's
relations with the U.S. "Within the nuclear issue, the North cannot afford to
neglect its relations with the South. That is also what the U.S. wants," said
Kim.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a political science professor at Korea University in Seoul, said
North Korea was softening toward the South with the larger goal of improved
relations with the U.S.
"What is crucial for the current (South Korean) administration's North Korea
policy is to maintain a calm stance, regardless of any given political situation,
while keeping a consistent demand that the North shift its policy," Yoo said.
(END)