[USFK Forums] Koreas to discuss abducted S. Koreans at Red Cross talks [Yonhap]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, March 17, 2006

(LEAD) Koreas to discuss abducted S. Koreans at Red Cross talks

2006/03/16 17:02

SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- North and South Korea are to hold a working-level meeting of their Red Cross officials from this week, during which the sides are expected to discuss ways to resolve their humanitarian issues, including South Koreans held in the communist North.

"A Red Cross meeting between working-level officials is to be held at the North's Mount Geumgang from Friday through Sunday," the country's Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said in a press briefing Thursday.

The three-day meeting is mainly to discuss the upcoming rounds of reunions between families separated by the division of the countries.

During the 7th round of inter-Korean Red Cross talks held in the North's scenic mountain resort late last month, the North agreed to hold a special round of reunions involving 200 families from each side in June, as well as two new rounds of family reunions via video in June and August.

"Considering the expanded size of the reunions, we felt the need to begin discussions at an early date," Shin said.

The Koreas have held 12 rounds of family reunions since the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, usually involving 100 families from each side. A 13th round of the Red Cross-sponsored family reunion program is to be held at Mount Geumgang from Monday through Saturday.

The vice minister, however, said the sides will also discuss ways to implement the agreement between their chief delegates to the Red Cross talks last month.

The seven-point agreement said the sides agreed to negotiate and resolve the issue of separated families, including those whose fate has remained unknown since the Korean War.

It was a compromise from Seoul's earlier demand to specifically address the issue of South Korean prisoners of war from the 1950-53 conflict and civilians abducted since its end.

But it was also a significant compromise by the North Korean side, according to South Korean officials, which has never before acknowledged that there were people missing from the war.

The next round of Red Cross talks is to be held at the North's mountain resort in June.

The Koreas have technically remained in a state of war since the end of Korean War, which ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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