ID :
79987
Tue, 09/15/2009 - 10:20
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https://www.oananews.org//node/79987
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Koreas exchange lists of surviving relatives for family reunions
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea on Tuesday exchanged lists
bearing the names of surviving relatives who will take part in upcoming
cross-border family reunions to be held for the first time in nearly two years.
A new round of family reunions, agreed to at inter-Korean Red Cross talks last
month, will be held at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast
from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, shortly before the traditional Korean holiday of
Chuseok. The humanitarian project was suspended in late 2007 as Pyongyang
boycotted inter-Korean dialogue.
"South and North Korea exchanged the results of their search to locate the
relatives and find out whether they are alive," Unification Ministry spokesman
Chun Hae-sung said in a press briefing.
The Koreas exchanged the lists of 200 applicants on Sept. 1 and will narrow them
down to 100 each based on the results of their search. The final lists will be
exchanged on Thursday.
About 600,000 people in the South are believed to have relatives in the North
from whom they have been separated since the 1950-53 Korean War. Applicants here
are first selected through a computer lottery, with the final list determined
according to those with surviving direct family members and age.
The upcoming reunions, as customary, are expected to include South Korean
prisoners of war or fishermen who were allegedly forced to stay in the North
after their boats strayed over the maritime border during the Cold War era. The
number of such applicants for this round was not yet known.
Pyongyang officially denies holding any South Koreans against their will, but has
usually included several of them in previous reunions.
Family reunions, arranged by Red Cross offices on both sides, were launched in
2000 as an outcome of the historic first inter-Korean summit that year. North
Korea agreed to resume the event at Red Cross talks last month in one of the
latest signs that it is shifting towards a reconciliatory stance with the South.
South Korea, meanwhile, was demanding an apology over a deadly flood unleashed by
the North on Sept. 6. North Korea has said that rising water levels at a dam
caused an "emergency" that forced it to discharge the water. The floodwaters
killed six people who were camping along riverbanks in the South.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea on Tuesday exchanged lists
bearing the names of surviving relatives who will take part in upcoming
cross-border family reunions to be held for the first time in nearly two years.
A new round of family reunions, agreed to at inter-Korean Red Cross talks last
month, will be held at the scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast
from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, shortly before the traditional Korean holiday of
Chuseok. The humanitarian project was suspended in late 2007 as Pyongyang
boycotted inter-Korean dialogue.
"South and North Korea exchanged the results of their search to locate the
relatives and find out whether they are alive," Unification Ministry spokesman
Chun Hae-sung said in a press briefing.
The Koreas exchanged the lists of 200 applicants on Sept. 1 and will narrow them
down to 100 each based on the results of their search. The final lists will be
exchanged on Thursday.
About 600,000 people in the South are believed to have relatives in the North
from whom they have been separated since the 1950-53 Korean War. Applicants here
are first selected through a computer lottery, with the final list determined
according to those with surviving direct family members and age.
The upcoming reunions, as customary, are expected to include South Korean
prisoners of war or fishermen who were allegedly forced to stay in the North
after their boats strayed over the maritime border during the Cold War era. The
number of such applicants for this round was not yet known.
Pyongyang officially denies holding any South Koreans against their will, but has
usually included several of them in previous reunions.
Family reunions, arranged by Red Cross offices on both sides, were launched in
2000 as an outcome of the historic first inter-Korean summit that year. North
Korea agreed to resume the event at Red Cross talks last month in one of the
latest signs that it is shifting towards a reconciliatory stance with the South.
South Korea, meanwhile, was demanding an apology over a deadly flood unleashed by
the North on Sept. 6. North Korea has said that rising water levels at a dam
caused an "emergency" that forced it to discharge the water. The floodwaters
killed six people who were camping along riverbanks in the South.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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