» 09/18/2010 11:25 KOREA Seoul and Pyongyang ready to restart family reunifications The meeting between the two governments facilitated by the Red Cross. The next meetings of families divided by civil war since 1950 could be between October 21 and 27.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - Representatives of the two Koreas held a meeting yesterday – facilitated by the Red Cross - to agree on a new round of temporary meetings between families divided by the Korean War (1950-53). The meeting was successful, but the two governments have postponed a final decision until next September 24.
According to the Seoul Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung, during the meeting yesterday - held in the border town of Kaesong - Pyongyang proposed a humanitarian event for a hundred families in each country between 21 and October 27 in the tourist resort of Mount Kumgang in North Korea.
"We proposed to hold regular meetings and to allow for the participation of many more people than ever before," said Chun. Seoul also proposed earlier dates for the event, between 19 and 24 October, a suggestion that was not greeted warmly.
The plan "still leaves some issues open to be discussed next Friday," said the head of the Seoul delegation, Kim Eyi-Sun. The reunions between families divided since the Korean War, organized under the auspices of the Red Cross, first began in 2000 after the historic inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
The meetings, after a break of two years following the election to the conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, were resumed in September last year.
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