Asia-Pacific

Koreans meet to discuss family reunions

By Kwang-Tae Kim (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-02 10:08

A coach carrying Red Cross representatives of the Republic of Korea crossing the border with the DPRK on Friday, Oct 1, 2010. [Xinhua]

SEOUL - Red Cross officials from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) tried to narrow differences on Friday over how to restart a stalled program to hold reunions for families separated by civil war 60 years ago, the ROK's Unification Ministry said.

The reunions, which have not been held in more than a year, could help restore calm to relations between the countries which have been tense since the controversial March sinking of an ROK warship that killed 46 sailors. An international investigation blamed the attack on the DPRK, but Pyongyang denies involvement.

The DPRK Red Cross in early September proposed a resumption of the reunions, but the two sides have not agreed on details of the venue as well as their scale, and two previous rounds of talks last month failed to resolve the dispute.

The difficulty in broadly reducing tensions between the sides was underscored on Thursday when their first working-level military talks in two years ended without progress, with the meeting stumbling over the issue of the warship sinking.

The ROK has proposed holding the family meetings in a reunion center at the DPRK's scenic mountain resort, but the two sides have not agreed on an exact location within it.

"I will try to resolve the issue of a venue for reunions of separated families and discuss details on the schedule," Kim Eyi-do, the ROK side's chief delegate, told reporters before crossing the border into the DPRK city of Kaesong where the talks were being held.

The dispute over the venue stems from the ROK's suspension of tourist trips there, which had provided the impoverished north with much-needed hard currency for a decade. Seoul took the action in 2008 when an ROK tourist was fatally shot after allegedly entering a restricted military area next to the facility.

On Thursday, Seoul renewed its demand that Pyongyang immediately acknowledge and apologize for the ship sinking and punish those responsible, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.

The DPRK responded that it cannot accept the result of the international investigation and reiterated its long-standing demand that its own investigators be allowed to go to the ROK to examine the results, the ministry said.