South and North Korea agreed to hold the reunion of the families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War at the Mount Geumgang, a scenic resort in the North, Feb. 20-25.
Delegates from both sides came with the agreement during a working-level negotiation of Red Cross at the border village of Panmunjeom, the Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday.
Earlier, the South proposed the reunion take place Feb. 17-22 with the North having kept mum on the proposal.
Three South Korean officials began talks with their North Korean counterparts around 10 a.m. at the border village of Panmunjom and are set to continue before breaking for lunch. They plan to hold another round of talks in the afternoon before returning home later in the day.
They are expected to try to set the dates for the reunions and pick lodging facilities for elderly separated family members.
Last week, South Korea proposed staging the reunions at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort on North Korea's east coast, from Feb. 17 for six days.
Still, it was not immediately clear whether Pyongyang will accept Seoul's offer.
"It is difficult to predict the results of the talks," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin said.
Seoul made the proposal after Pyongyang asked South Korea to select the dates for family reunions as part of its recent charm offensive toward South Korea.
The South Korean chief delegate, Lee Duck-hang, told reporters before leaving for Panmunjom that he will try his "best to bring good news to separated families."
The dates proposed by South Korea are before the start date of Seoul's annual joint military exercises with Washington, which are set to run from late February through April.
North Korea has repeatedly pressed South Korea to scrap the drills, condemning them as a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it. Seoul and Washington have vowed to go ahead with the exercises, calling them defensive in nature.
South Korea has called the family reunions a first step toward improving inter-Korean relations.
The reunions, if held, would be the first since October 2010.
Family reunions are a highly emotional issue on the divided Korean Peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and wish to see their long-lost relatives before they die.
There are no direct means of contact between ordinary civilians of the two countries that remain divided by a heavily fortified border.
The divided Koreas have held more than a dozen rounds of reunions since their landmark summit in 2000, bringing together more than 21,700 family members who had not seen each other since the Korean War.(Yonhap)
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Delegates from both sides came with the agreement during a working-level negotiation of Red Cross at the border village of Panmunjeom, the Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday.
Earlier, the South proposed the reunion take place Feb. 17-22 with the North having kept mum on the proposal.
Three South Korean officials began talks with their North Korean counterparts around 10 a.m. at the border village of Panmunjom and are set to continue before breaking for lunch. They plan to hold another round of talks in the afternoon before returning home later in the day.
They are expected to try to set the dates for the reunions and pick lodging facilities for elderly separated family members.
Last week, South Korea proposed staging the reunions at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort on North Korea's east coast, from Feb. 17 for six days.
Still, it was not immediately clear whether Pyongyang will accept Seoul's offer.
"It is difficult to predict the results of the talks," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin said.
Seoul made the proposal after Pyongyang asked South Korea to select the dates for family reunions as part of its recent charm offensive toward South Korea.
The South Korean chief delegate, Lee Duck-hang, told reporters before leaving for Panmunjom that he will try his "best to bring good news to separated families."
The dates proposed by South Korea are before the start date of Seoul's annual joint military exercises with Washington, which are set to run from late February through April.
North Korea has repeatedly pressed South Korea to scrap the drills, condemning them as a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it. Seoul and Washington have vowed to go ahead with the exercises, calling them defensive in nature.
South Korea has called the family reunions a first step toward improving inter-Korean relations.
The reunions, if held, would be the first since October 2010.
Family reunions are a highly emotional issue on the divided Korean Peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and wish to see their long-lost relatives before they die.
There are no direct means of contact between ordinary civilians of the two countries that remain divided by a heavily fortified border.
The divided Koreas have held more than a dozen rounds of reunions since their landmark summit in 2000, bringing together more than 21,700 family members who had not seen each other since the Korean War.(Yonhap)
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