North-South Korea agree to family reunions

YONHAP, EPA
A file picture dated 20 February 2014 shows South Korean resident Kim Sung-yun, more
North and South Korea have agreed to host family reunions for families separated by the Korean War, according to media reports.

The reunions for 100 separated families will be held Oct. 20-26 at Mount Kumgang, a resort on the North's east coast., South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday. They will be the first reunions since February 2014 and only the second in the past five years.

The agreement, held at the border truce village of Panmunjom, grew out of another the two Koreas reached two weeks ago to end a precipitous military standoff and reduce tensions, Britain's Daily Mail reported.

The BBC reported that the talks were being held by Red Cross officials from both sides.

The two countries remain technically at war as the Korean War only ended in an armistice. The discussions come after tense weeks on the Korean peninsula, which included exchanges of fire at the border and the evacuation of thousands of South Koreans from the border region. Tensions began when a border landmine injured two South Korean soldiers. South Korea responded by broadcasting propaganda messages into the North.

The two sides reached an agreement to defuse the situation after marathon talks, the BBC reported.

Thousands of families have been separated with little contact since 1953, when the war divided the two Koreas. Initiated after a historic North-South summit in 2000, the reunions were originally annual events, but they've often been cancelled due to poor North-South relations.

Each reunion is deluged by tens of thousands of applications from South Korea, but only a tiny percentage are selected. The last meeting saw 100 from each side attending in a hugely emotional event.

About 66,000 South Koreans, many of them in their 70s or 80s, are on the waiting list for an eventual reunion, Yonhap reported. About half of the estimated 129,700 applicants for reunions have since died.