North Korea proposes restarting family reunions
September 11th, 2010 - 2:21 pm ICT by IANSSeoul, Sep 11 (DPA) South Korea is considering a North Korean proposal to restart reunions of divided families, a news report said Saturday.
An official from the unification ministry in Seoul confirmed that it had received the proposal from the North Korean Red Cross Society, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
South Korea’s National Red Cross is considering the proposal, the official said.
Pyongyang sent a message to the South Friday proposing reunions at the mountain resort of Geumgang during the Chuseok harvest holiday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. The holiday falls this year Sep 22.
The most recent family reunions, the first in two years, took place at the resort on the east coast last September.
Relations between the two states — still technically at war since the Korean War of 1950-53 — took a turn for the worse in March following the sinking of a South Korean warship in which 46 sailors were killed. South Korea blamed the North for torpedoing it, a claim the Stalinist state denied.
The Korean War left many families split between the two countries.
Some 16,000 people have been reunited with family members.
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- Seoul calls on North Korea to stop provocation - Jun 25, 2010
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