By Yi Whan-woo
The two Koreas on Thursday will exchange the final list of the 200 elderly people who will be reunited with their families across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from Oct. 20 -26.
One hundred people from each country, mainly in their 70s or older, will meet their loved ones at Mount Geumgang resort in North Korea after being separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, the Korean Red Cross said Sunday.
The Red Crosses of Seoul and Pyongyang have jointly been preparing for the inter-Korean reunions for the first time since February 2014 in line with the inter-Korean peace agreement on Aug. 25.
The 200 people will be chosen from 450 applicants, 200 from the North and 250 from the South.
The two Koreas have been verifying whether the applicants’ relatives remain alive on the other side of the border.
The two sides will notify their respective findings to each other, Monday, and then will complete the final list.
The Ministry of Unification, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, will invite the successful applicants to Sokcho, Gangwon Province on Oct. 19 and give guidelines before their visits to North Korea.
The two Koreas have had 19 rounds of reunions since June 2000 when the historic inter-Korean summit took place.
In spite of the dwindling number of members of the war-divided families, Pyongyang still has a record of calling off the reunions if it found Seoul’s reaction toward its military aggression provocative.
It is speculated that North Korea may defy a U.N. ban and fire a long-range rocket around Oct. 10 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of its Workers’ Party.
And it remains to be seen whether Pyongyang will scrap the family reunions this time if it launches a rocket, and Seoul joins the U.N.’s subsequent condemnation of North Korea.
Seoul has made it clear it is against North Korea’s possible violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology. The U.S.-led allies suspect North Korea’s rocket launch is merely a cover for a ballistic missile test.
The planned family reunions are seen as the barometer whether the military regime will faithfully carry out the inter-Korean agreement on Aug. 25.
The accord is aimed at ending the military standoff, bolstering Seoul-Pyongyang dialogue and facilitating inter-Korean exchanges on government and civic sectors.