hankyoreh

leaders of the South and North Korean delegations to the Feb. 5 meetings on inter-Korean family reunions

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

Surpassing a series of hurdles, representatives from North and South Korea at last sat down together at the Unification Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, at 10 am on Feb. 5.

The first person to break the silence was Pak Yong-il, leader of North Korea’s delegation. “We have passed the Lunar calendar’s beginning of spring, but there is still a wintry chill in the air,” Pak said. “The Red Cross organization must take the lead in ensuring that our first meeting this year gets a warm spring breeze blowing to improve inter-Korean relations.”

The leader of the South Korean delegation, Lee Deok-haeng, responded to the remark. “Let us work together both to bring good news to the divided families who are looking forward to the reunions and to make this an opportunity for North and South Korea to work together and build trust.”

As suggested by this cordial beginning, the working-level meeting between North and South ended in complete agreement after four hours and 22 minutes. The two sides decided to hold the divided family reunions at Mt. Keumgang from Feb. 20 to Feb. 25. The decision comes four months after the divided family reunions were abruptly delayed only four days before they were supposed to take place in Sep. 2013.

Interestingly, the scheduled dates of the reunions overlap with the Key Resolve US-ROK joint military exercises, suggesting that North Korea is being very flexible. The next question is whether this will be a turning point leading to major improvement in inter-Korean relations.

The ultimate schedule for the reunions is three days later than Seoul’s initial proposal of Feb. 17 to Feb. 22. The Unification Ministry explained that North Korea proposed this revised scheduled because of internal reasons and that the South accepted the change. 100 families from each side will take part in the reunions, using the same lists of names that were exchanged in Sep. 2013. From Feb. 20-22, 100 families from the South will meet their relatives from the North; from Feb. 23-25, 100 families from the North will be reunited with their Southern counterparts.

Last year, there was disagreement about where the families would stay, but this time it was decided to house the family members at Kumgangsan Hotel and Outer Kumgang Hotel as Seoul proposed. Perhaps in consideration of the cold winter weather, North Korea did not insist on its former proposal of putting the visitors up at the floating Haegeumgang Hotel.

The two sides also promised to prevent a reoccurrence of what happened last year, when planned reunions were canceled shortly before the event was supposed to take place. In addition, they agreed to continue holding working-level talks between the North and South Korean branches of the Red Cross even after the reunions take place to discuss ways to address humanitarian issues.

Thanks to the agreement, the divided family reunions - which have not been held since 2010 - will resume once again after a four-year hiatus. In addition, this also partially confirms that North Korea has been sincere in the repeated calls for improving inter-Korean relations that it has made since the beginning of the year.

"North Korea agreed to the South’s request for divided family reunions without any special conditions,” said Kim Chang-su, director of research for the Korea National Strategy Institute. “Considering that North Korea’s sincerity has been confirmed, the foundation has been laid for fully embarking on the trust-building process for the Korean peninsula, the Park administration’s policy toward North Korea.”

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