By Kim Young-jin
The United States and North Korea again discussed holding reunions for Korean-Americans and their relatives in the communist state, separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, during a rare meeting last week, raising hope among activists working on the issue.
U.S. officials said the topic was raised along with other humanitarian issues such possible food aid for the North in talks focused primarily on how to resume multilateral negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
It was the latest signal that the countries, who share traditionally icy ties, are working towards unprecedented temporary reunions for the separated families. An estimated 100,000 first-generation Korean Americans are believed to have family members in the Stalinist state.
Though officials from both sides said the two-day meeting in Geneva was constructive they did not elaborate on specific areas of progress.
It was also discussed during the first round of U.S.-North talks in July attended by Pyongyang’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and Robert King, Washington’s point man on North Korean human rights. After the meeting, a North Korean official said its Red Cross branch was “positively examining the issue from a humanitarian viewpoint” as a way to build trust toward resolving other issues.
“This is encouraging and gratifying,” Alyssa Woo, administrator for Saemsori, a project promoting reunions for Korean-Americans, said of the development. She added the next step was to create a bill that would establish reunions that “will survive the winds of current events.”
With no diplomatic ties between the countries, the vast majority of Korean-Americans with relatives in the North have been unable to see or contact them since the outbreak of the fratricidal conflict.
Activists say the issue previously languished due to Washington’s focus on the North’s nuclear program. But it has appeared on the agenda recently on the back of intensified efforts to coax Pyongyang back to denuclearization talks in a constructive manner.
That followed an agreement in May to allow 10 Korean-Americans to exchange letters with their families in the communist country, seen as a pilot program ahead of possible temporary reunions.
The Red Cross has facilitated temporary reunions for thousands of separated families in South and North Korea since the events were agreed upon during a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000. Eighty Korean-Americans were permitted to participate, but only as relatives of South Koreans.