Rival Koreas agree to family reunions

North and South Korea agree to hold a reunion later this month for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Talks on the reunions of families resumed following a deal reached by the two sides on an industrial zone [EPA]

North and South Korea have agreed to hold a reunion later this month for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Officials from both sides meeting in the border truce village of Panmunjom, decided on Wednesday the reunion would be held on February 20-25 at the North’s Mount Kumgang resort, the South’s Unification Ministry said.

The agreement marks a small sign of progress between the two rivals who, in recent years, have struggled to cooperate on even the most basic trust-building measures.

But both sides have been here before.

Similar talks between the North and South Korean Red Cross in August last year concluded with an agreement to hold a reunion the following month for several hundred divided family members.

With the selection process completed and the chosen relatives preparing to gather at the North’s Mount Kumgang resort, Pyongyang cancelled the event just four days before its scheduled start, citing “hostility” from the South.

There are widespread concerns that the families could end up being disappointed again this time around.

Military exercises

South Korea is due to begin joint military exercises with the United States at the end of February, despite warnings from North Korea of dire consequences should they go ahead.

The annual drills are always a diplomatic flashpoint on the Korean peninsula, and last year resulted in an unusually extended period of heightened military tensions.

Yoo Ho-Yeol, professor of North Korean Studies at Seoul’s Korea University, predicted that the North would use the reunion as a bargaining chip.

“Rather than cancelling the event again, it may try to extract concessions, like a scaling down of the joint military exercises, or an easing of South Korean sanctions,” Yoo said.

Sixty years after the war ended, many of those who suffered the division of their families have died. Most of those still living are in advanced old age.

The reunion programme began in earnest in 2000 following an historic inter-Korean summit. Sporadic events since then have seen around 17,000 relatives briefly reunited.

But the programme was suspended in 2010 following the North’s shelling of a South Korean border island.

Because the Korean conflict concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas technically remain at war and direct exchanges of letters or telephone calls are prohibited.

Up to 73,000 South Koreans are wait-listed for a chance to take part in one of the reunion events, which select only a few hundred participants at a time.

Source: AFP