World

More Korean Reunions Ahead

November 30, 2000 / 8:11 AM EST / AP

North Korea on Monday accepted a South Korean proposal to hold another round of reunions for 100 separated family members from each side in late February, local pool reports said.

The two sides also agreed to allow first-ever correspondence among 300 selected, separated families on each side beginning on March 15, said the reports filed by eight South Korean reporters covering three days of inter-Korea Red Cross talks that opened at a North Korean mountain resort Monday.

The agreement came on the heels of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's six-day study tour of China on Jan. 15-20.

Kim's China trip, his second in less than eight months, raised speculation that Pyongyang's communist leadership may lift its reclusive policy, opening up to the outside world and accelerating inter-Korea exchanges.

Like two previous family reunions, the Feb. 26-28 reunions will involve 100 separated family members from each side. To boost the chances of reunions, the sides will exchange the names of 200 candidates on Wednesday to locate their relatives they have not seen for more than 50 years.

The family reunions are a key part of agreements reached at a historic June summit between the North Korean leader and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in the North's capital, Pyongyang.

The two Koreas have since staged two reunions for 400 family members separated by the Korean War. The Koreas are still in a state of conflict since the war ended in an uneasy armistice, not in a peace treaty.

At Monday's talks, South Korea renewed its earlier proposal to set up special zones where separated relatives can meet regularly and spend time together.

The South wants to build such a meeting place at the border village of Panmunjom. North Korea reportedly wants to build it at the scenic Diamond Mountain where Red Cross talks were being held.

It was not immediately known whether there was any headway in narrowing differences over the meeting place, the pool reports said.
Family reunions are an urgent, emotional matter in South Korea because many of those dispersed members are elderly and may die before they have the chance to meet their loved ones.

An estimated 1.2 million North Koreans fled to the South during the Korean War. Thousands of South Koreans also went to the North during the war, many of them conscripted into the communist country's army.

South Korean officials had said before starting the Red Cross talks that North Korea may renew a demand for repatriation of all convicted ex-communist spies in South Korea who want to go home.

It was unknown whether that issue actually was raised, the reports said.

South Korean human rights groups estimated the number of such ex-communist spies at between 25 and 30. Those ex-spies are free after serving long prison terms but cannot leave the country without government permission. Last September, South Korea repatriated 63 such Northern spies.

South Korean officials in Seoul said they have no plan to repatriate more ex-communist spies because they have previously signed an oath disavowing communism in order to be released from prison.

The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and the pro-western South at the end of World War II in 1945. Their border is sealed and there is no mail, telephone and other direct means of communications between ordinary citizens.