A South Korean delegation met with North Korean officials on Friday to discuss cross-border family reunions and humanitarian aid, the latest in a series of inter-Korean meetings to defrost ties between the two sides, Yonhap News reproted.
North Korea agreed earlier this week to the one-day working-level meeting in Kaesong, just north of the border, in the meanwhile test-firing short-range missiles and warning of a naval clash in the Yellow Sea. This "two-track" diplomacy came as the North, currently under U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests in spring, was pushing the South to resume profitable tourism projects and humanitarian aid to the country.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said that two working-level officials -- Kim Eyi-do, senior policy cooperation officer at the ministry, and Kim Seong-kuen from the Red Cross -- began their meeting with North Korean officials at the Kaesong industrial complex at around 10 a.m.
In the meeting arranged by Red Cross offices from both sides, South Korea will propose holding new rounds of reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War next month and again around Lunar New Year's Day in February. North Korea is expected to raise the issues of rice and fertilizer aid and the suspended tour programs to its Mount Kumgang resort and Kaesong, Seoul officials say.
"Various issues will be put to discussion in the Red Cross meeting tomorrow, and we have to see (the results)," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told reporters on Thursday when asked whether Seoul has any plan to resume rice aid after the talks. "We will decide, depending on the developments," he said.