By Kang Seung-woo
South Korea asked North Korea Wednesday for Red Cross talks next week to discuss holding cross-border family reunions on a regular basis, the Ministry of Unification said.
According to the ministry, Seoul made the proposal to Pyongyang through the Panmunjeom telephone channel at around 11:15 a.m. and offered to meet on March 12 on the South Korean side of the truce village.
"The South expects a speedy response from the North's speedy response to the proposal, given the pain and agony of the separated families," unification ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin said at a briefing.
Late last month, the two Koreas held reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War for the first time in three years, but due to the limited number of people who met their long-missing families, there have been calls for regular reunions between the two countries.
The move comes after President Park Geun-hye proposed the regularization of family reunions on Saturday, saying time is running out for the elderly waiting to see their long-lost relatives.
In addition, she ordered her administration Tuesday to talk with the North about the separated families to allow the exchange of letters and the holding of video reunions.
However, it remains to be seen if North Korea will accept the offer, given its provocations in protest against the ongoing joint South Korean-U.S. military training, which the North considers a rehearsal for an attack of the Stalinist country.
Beginning with its launch of four Scud missiles on Thursday, the Kim Jong-un regime fired two more Scuds and seven short-range projectiles with its multiple rocket launchers on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
In addition, the North has yet to respond to the South's offer to provide aid to help contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
South Korea asked North Korea Wednesday for Red Cross talks next week to discuss holding cross-border family reunions on a regular basis, the Ministry of Unification said.
According to the ministry, Seoul made the proposal to Pyongyang through the Panmunjeom telephone channel at around 11:15 a.m. and offered to meet on March 12 on the South Korean side of the truce village.
"The South expects a speedy response from the North's speedy response to the proposal, given the pain and agony of the separated families," unification ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin said at a briefing.
Late last month, the two Koreas held reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War for the first time in three years, but due to the limited number of people who met their long-missing families, there have been calls for regular reunions between the two countries.
The move comes after President Park Geun-hye proposed the regularization of family reunions on Saturday, saying time is running out for the elderly waiting to see their long-lost relatives.
In addition, she ordered her administration Tuesday to talk with the North about the separated families to allow the exchange of letters and the holding of video reunions.
However, it remains to be seen if North Korea will accept the offer, given its provocations in protest against the ongoing joint South Korean-U.S. military training, which the North considers a rehearsal for an attack of the Stalinist country.
Beginning with its launch of four Scud missiles on Thursday, the Kim Jong-un regime fired two more Scuds and seven short-range projectiles with its multiple rocket launchers on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
In addition, the North has yet to respond to the South's offer to provide aid to help contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
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