By Lee Tae-hoon
The government decided Tuesday to postpone inter-Korean Red Cross talks scheduled for Thursday after tension between the two Korea escalated following an exchange of artillery fire, an official of the Ministry of Unification said.
"We’ve concluded that it would be inappropriate to hold talks in the current situation where the North Korea military has fired artillery shells on Yeonpyeong Island," said Lee Jong-joo, spokeswoman for the ministry.
Red Cross officials of the two Koreas had agreed to meet in the South Korean border town of Munsan to discuss ways to regularize the reunions of family members separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The two sides last held talks in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong on Oct. 26 and 27.
At the meeting, the South Korean National Red Cross proposed holding family reunions on a regular basis, but the two failed to reach an agreement because Pyongyang demanded 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer in return. Also, the North has been attempting to link the regularization of family reunions with resumption of tours to Mt. Geumgang.
The two Koreas have held 17 face-to-face reunion events for displaced family members since 2000 when they held their first-ever summit, briefly reuniting about 17,100 people from 3,500 families, according to the unification ministry. Most of the family members are elderly citizens.
Inter-Korean relations have been frosty ever since the March 26 sinking of a South Korean frigate Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. The South claims that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the naval vessel near the maritime border in the West Sea. North Korea has denied any involvement. All inter-Korean exchanges have been virtually put on hold since then, until the recent delivery of civilian aid and two family reunions.