South and North agree to hold family reunions in late September

Posted on : 2013-08-24 12:58 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
The two sides still have plenty to work out with continued reunions and possibly resuming tourism at Mt. Keumgang
 leader of the North Korean delegation
leader of the North Korean delegation

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

One hundred people each from South and North Korea will meet at Mt. Keumkang between Sept. 25 and 30 this year for family reunions.

Video reunions are also scheduled for 40 families on each side for Oct. 22 and 23, with another reunion event to take place in the month of November.

The 4-clause agreement was announced at 9 pm on Aug. 23 after 11 hours of discussions between South and North Korea. The Red Cross working-level talks started at 10 am at the Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom.

The original goal was to reach an agreement on in-person and real-time video reunions around next month’s Chuseok holiday, one of the major events in the Korean calendar. But the proceedings dragged on late into the night as the two sides were unable to bridge their differences on the scale of the reunions and whether to allow South Korean abductees and POWs currently being held in North Korea.

The abductee and POW issues were ultimately not included in the agreement, and the scale of reunions was kept at its previous level of 100 people from each side. The two sides also agreed to continue working on a more fundamental resolution to the divided family issue, including regularizing reunion events, exchange of written correspondence, and confirmation on whether family members are living or dead.

According to the agreement, survival confirmation requests are to be exchanged on Aug. 29 for between 200 and 250 people in a method agreed upon by both sides. Reports would then be exchanged on Sept. 13, with final lists shared on Sept. 16, after which the two sides would follow previous practices on the format and methods of the reunions.

The reports in question take the form of a response to one side’s inquiry on whether an individual is actually a family member.

The two sides are also scheduled to send advance teams to check the reunion site and other facilities five days before the event begins on Sept. 25.

Both sides agreed on the live and video reunions at a 10 am general meeting.

But the talks reportedly ran into difficulties when the South Korean side raised the topic of a “fundamental resolution” to the divided family issue, including regularizing reunion events, confirmations of survival status and whereabouts, exchanges of written correspondence, and information about the status of POWs and abductees. According to sources, the North Korean representatives maintained that the Red Cross talks should focus only on the Chuseok reunions and video reunions for the anniversary of the 2007 inter-Korean summit declaration on Oct. 4.

The first reunions of families separated by the division of the Korean Peninsula took place in 1985. They were then halted, and resumed in 2000. Since then, there have been 18 face-to-face reunion events and seven video reunion events, allowing 21,734 people from 4,321 families on both sides to see each other again. Between 2000 and 2007, events were held annually. After President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008, only two events were held, one each in 2009 and 2010. Nearly three years have passed since the last one.

South Korea may have failed with its ambitious attempt to increase the scale of the events and get a clear answer from the North on the POW and abductee issues at the Red Cross talks. But some critics said it was unrealistic to hope for agreement on anything more than reunions at a working-level meeting.

Despite the ultimate agreement to something on the level of 2010 reunions, the discussions were as program-plagued as any talks among leaders. Indeed, compared to past examples, they were odd enough to scarcely seem like working-level talks at all. In the past, an agreement like the one from Aug. 23 would typically be announced right after the morning meeting.

The reason for the rough going was South Korea’s insistence on pushing ahead with its typical unrealistic demands without setting a clear, predictable goal based on an understanding of Pyongyang’s fundamental position. Experts in inter-Korean relations said it made no sense for the South Korean side to bring up fundamental issues such as regular reunions and correspondence exchanges at talks where the senior representatives were Red Cross central committee members, not government officials.

Because of this, the only real results to speak of were an agreement for additional working-level talks toward another set of reunions in November so that the Chuseok event is not just a one-off for the holiday.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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