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Both Koreas agree to have talks for family reunions

Posted August. 31, 2015 07:05,   

한국어

South and North Korea have agreed to hold the Red Cross talks on September 7 as a preparation for hosting the reunions of separated families in time for Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday. As North Korea accepted South Korea’s proposal for working-level meetings in unprecedentedly fast manners, the progress for the resumption of separated family reunions is gaining momentum.

As the both Koreas agreed to resume talks for reunions of separated families after a long suspension, some are urging the South Korean government to take actions for fundamental resolution of the separated family issue, such as confirmation of life and death of all separated family members in the North and the South and holding the reunions on a regular basis.

Pyongyang sent a notification on Saturday to accept the offer for separated family reunions from the South Korean Red Cross through a hot line channel installed at the inter-Korean liaison office at the border village Panmunjom. North Korea has accepted the offer from South Korea to hold a working-level meeting on September 7 at the House of Peace in the South Korean area of the Panmunjom. It is unprecedented for North Korea to send a response on Saturday, not on the business days.

The South Korean government plans to ask North Korea to exchange a list of some 66,200 separated family members to confirm their life and death, as the next step for hosting the reunions of separated families. “At the high-level talks between the two Koreas, the South Korean delegation has proposed to exchange a list of separated families. But North Korea refused the proposal citing it would be hard to exchange such a list for now since it takes a long time to survey their life and death," said a South Korean government official. "The South Korea delegation agreed with it and excluded the proposal from the joint statement made on August 25. The offer will be discussed at the working-level Red Cross Meeting,”

At the high-level meeting between Seoul and Pyongyang, reportedly the North Korean delegation has agreed that it is important to confirm life and death of the separated family members. “We hope to exchange a list of the separated families within this year,” said South Korean President Park Geun-hye in the commemorative speech for the Liberation Day on Aug. 15. After North and South Koreas confirm life and death of separated families and exchange a list of the family members, the South Korean government plans to offer regularization of separated family reunions at Geumkang Mountain, which allows separated families to meet together whenever they want.



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