Koreas Agree to Hold Family Reunions This Month

Local Editor

The rival Koreas agreed Wednesday to hold their first reunions of Korean War-divided families in more than three years later this month, another small step forward in easing tensions between the two neighbors.

On Wednesday, in a meeting of Red Cross delegates at a border village, North Korea agreed to hold the reunions Feb. 20-25 at its scenic Diamond Mountain, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for cross-border affairs.
 
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency also confirmed the arrangements.

During Wednesday's talks, South Korea expressed regret over the cancellation of the previous reunions, and North Korea agreed there should be no such recurrence, a ministry statement said. Under the agreement, 100 elderly people from each country chosen last September will meet their relatives, the statement said.

The talks were arranged after North Korea last month approved a resumption of the reunion program, which has been stalled since late 2010.
North Korea has recently ratcheted down its typical harsh rhetoric against South Korea and has made a series of conciliatory gestures in a sharp departure from a year ago, when it threatened Washington and Seoul with nuclear war and vowed to restart its production of fuel for nuclear weapons.

The two Koreas share one of the world's most heavily fortified borders and ordinary citizens are not allowed to exchange phone calls, letters and emails between the countries. The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
About 22,000 Koreans have had brief family reunions - 18,000 in person and the others by video - during periods of detente, but no one has had a second chance to meet their relatives.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team