hankyoreh

Red Cross officials of South and North Korea will meet Tuesday to discuss the repatriation of South Koreans forcibly taken to the North and to arrange reunions of separated families, officials said Monday.

The three-day talks at the North's scenic Mount Geumgang are to take place as a result of last month's inter-Korean cabinet-level talks, in which the sides agreed to discuss via the Red Cross the whereabouts of South Korean prisoners of war and abductees held in the North, as well as the reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 war.

Seoul plans to suggest to Pyongyang that reunions for POWs and abductees should be held apart from those of families separated by the war, Unification Ministry officials said. Families of POWs and abductees have previously met their loved ones as part of reunion events that are mainly organized for families separated by the war.

"So far, the reunions for the abductees and POWs have taken place on the sidelines of the separated family reunions, with two to five such people invited in each event, but in this way alone it's difficult to have a fundamental solution," a ministry official said requesting anonymity.

It remains to be seen how Pyongyang will respond to the proposal, he said.

Government data show that 485 South Koreans have been abducted to North Korea since the war, and that 548 South Korean soldiers were taken prisoner during the conflict.

The two Koreas, in their historic leaders' summit in 2000, agreed to hold reunions for families separated by the war and also for relatives of South Korean POWs and abductees. The reunions have since been held over a dozen times, with the next one scheduled for May 9-11 at Mount Geumgang.

The South Korean delegation will be headed by Jang Seok-jun, secretary-general of the South's Red Cross, while Choe Song-ik, vice president of the North's Red Cross, will represent the North.

Seoul, April 9 (Yonhap News)