Koreas Push for Family Reunions for 500
2003-06-30
MT GEUMGANG - Red Cross officials from South and North Korea on Sunday agreed in principle to expand the next round of family reunions to benefit 400-500 persons from each side, and to stage them simultaneously in Seoul and Pyongyang in September.
Suh Young-hoon, president of South's Korea National Red Cross (KNRC) and leading the delegation for the seventh round of inter-Korean family reunions, told reporters he received a favorable response from his North Korean counterpart, Jang Jae-on, to hold the next round of reunions around the Chuseok holiday which falls on September 11 this year.
Suh also proposed that “asymmetric” reunions, with the South sending in more people than the North, may be held if Pyongyang experiences difficulty in mobilizing a lot of elderly men and women to meet their kin.
Until now, the two Koreas have each sent about 100 elderly men and women for the reunions. The first three reunions were held in Seoul and Pyongyang simultaneously but the last four have been staged at this remote mountain resort at the North's insistence.
The KNRC chief also handed over the names of 225 journalists who disappeared during the 1950-1953 Korean War, asking the North to determine their whereabouts. Jang replied he would try.
Suh added the South Korean Red Cross will send blankets and children's stationery as relief aid to areas stricken by floods last year in the North.
The 110 South Korean men and women who took part in the reunions Sunday bid emotional farewells to their North Korean kin and came back to the South via the Hyundai cruiser Seolbong.
Starting June 30, a second team of South Koreans will come to this mountain resort for reunions with their 100 North Korean kin.
The mass family reunions in the current form started in August 2000 in the wake of the inter-Korean summit. Enabling ageing men and women to meet their family members for the first time in half a century, they are considered the biggest tangible fruits of rapprochement between the two Koreas.
The two Koreas have agreed to build a permanent reunion center at Mt. Geumgang, but progress has been slow as they have failed to resolve differences over the size of the building, which would enable a much larger number of families to meet.
Source : www.korea.net
