hankyoreh

led by Kim Kyu-hyun (front-center) to the high-level inter-Korean meeting at the Peace House on the South side of Panmunjeom Peace Village

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

Heavy 2.5-meter snowfall hasn’t been enough to derail the scheduled family reunions between divided North and South Korean families this month, but one last major hurdle remains. The two sides have themselves been divided on the issue of the reunion’s connection to upcoming joint military exercises between South Korea and the US. Now they have made plans for a second high-level meeting on Feb. 14, leaving open the possibility for a dialogue-based solution.

The first meeting took place on Feb. 12 at Peace House on the South Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village. According to the Ministry of Unification on Feb. 13, the North Korean delegation there asked for the exercises to be put off until after the reunion are held. Currently, the last two days of the reunions, which are scheduled for Feb. 20 to 25, overlap with the first two of the exercises, which start on Feb. 24. The South Korean delegation reportedly continued to insist that the exercises should not be tied to the reunions, which they called a “purely humanitarian issue.”

The worry now is that if neither side backs off on the two-day overlap, the entire reunion - or at least those for the second group of families on Feb. 23 and 25 - could end up canceled.

After their marathon fourteen-hour on Feb. 12 failed to produce an agreement, North and South Korea decided to hold another high-level meeting on Feb. 14.

“At noon today, North Korea made the proposal through the Panmunjeom channel to resume the high-level talks at Peace House at 3 pm on Feb. 14,” explained Kim Ui-do, spokesman for the Ministry of Unification, on Feb. 13. “We responded that we should hold them at Peace House at 10 am tomorrow, and that’s when we are going to meet.”

The issues discussed at the second talks are expected to be the same as the first talks on Feb. 12: the family reunions, the joint military exercises, President Park Geun-hye’s ideas for the “Korean Peninsula trust-building process,” and North Korea’s “important proposal” made in January.

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