Seoul's vice unification minister called for North Korea's cooperation on Monday in efforts to allow reunions of families separated by the countries' division following the 1950-53 Korean War.
"The North government also should assume the duties and responsibilities for solving this issue," Vice Unification Minister Kim Chun-sig said in a speech delivered at a separated families' event held at the Imjingak pavilion in the border village of Paju.
The call came as Pyongyang remains silent on Seoul's proposals, given in February and August, that they hold a reunion event for families separated between the South and the North.
Referring to the North's inaction, the vice minister said "This issue could be solved only if the North Korean authorities made a decision."
The Seoul government shares the pain and the anxiousness felt by separated family members, Kim said, adding the ministry "is willing to proactively solve the issue any time and without conditions, if there is a way to do so."
About 81,800 South Koreans are registered with the government as separated families as of this year.
The divided Koreas have held more than a dozen rounds of reunions since a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000, bringing together more than 21,700 family members who had not seen each other since the war.
But the annual reunion event, usually held around traditional holidays, was put on hold as the North raised criticism over the sitting Lee Myung-bak administration's hard-line policy toward the communist country. (Yonhap)
김천식 통일부차관은 30일 남북 이산가족 문제에 대해 북한 당국의 태도 변화를 촉구했다.
김 차관은 추석을 맞아 임진각 망배단에서 열린 `제43회 재이북부조(在以北父祖) 합동경모대회'에서 격려사를 통해 "이산가족 문제는 남한만의 문제가 아니다. 북한 당국도 이 문제를 풀어야 할 책임과 의무가 있다"면서 이같이 밝혔다.
김 차관은 북측이 지난 2월과 8월 두차례 이산가족 상봉 제안에 호응하지 않은 사실을 거론하며 "북한 당국이 결심만 하면 풀릴 수 있는 문제"라고 지적했다.
김 차관은 "정부는 1970년대 초부터 지금까지 40여 년을 이산가족 문제를 풀기 위한 노력을 계속해 왔는데 아직 흡족한 성과가 없다"면서 "정부는 여러분(이산가족)의 아픔에 대한 안타까움과 함께 무거운 책임감을 느낀다"고 강조했다.
그는 "남북 당국이 다른 어떤 이유를 들어 이산가족 문제 해결을 지연시킬 아무런 이유가 없다"면서 "정부는 아무 조건 없이 언제라도, 어떤 방법으로라도 푸는 방법이 있다면 적극 풀어나가고자 한다"고 말했다.(연합뉴스)
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