North Korea has offered to resume Red Cross-sponsored reunions between separated families of the two Koreas, which were halted amid growing tension following the communist state's missile launches and nuclear test, South Korea's minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) said Saturday.
"Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Presidium of the (North's) Supreme People's Assembly, said Red Cross talks must be held (between the Koreas) in the near future to discuss the issue of separated families," DLP Rep. Kwon Young-ghil told reporters after arriving at Incheon International Airport from Pyongyang via Beijing. Kwon and 12 other DLP officials traveled to the North Korean capital from Monday.
"Kim asked us to relay his country's position to Han Wan-sang," head of South Korea's National Red Cross, he said.
An official at the Unification Ministry said the government has yet to hear anything from the North. The divided Koreas regularly exchange telegrams, and their military and government officials working on joint projects often work as messengers.
The reported proposal by North Korea's No. 2 leader comes after an over three-month suspension of the Red Cross-sponsored program to reunite families separated by the division of the Koreas.
In a July 19 telegram to the head of the South Korean Red Cross, Jang Jae-on, chairman of the North's Red Cross society, said it was no longer possible "to hold any discussion related to" the humanitarian issue, forcing the cancellation of a scheduled round of the reunions at the North's Mount Geumgang in August.
The North Korean official said the decision was inevitable due to what he called Seoul's unilateral decision to cut off its humanitarian assistance to his nation.
Seoul suspended shipments of its humanitarian aid, mostly rice and fertilizer, to the communist state in July after the North test-fired seven ballistic missiles earlier that month in defiance of Seoul's appeals.
The two Koreas have held 14 rounds of the reunions since 2000, bringing together over 14,000 people from both sides of the inter-Korean border for the first time since the end of Korean War in 1953, according to the Unification Ministry. Over 90,000 from South Korea alone still remain separated from their loved ones.
Tensions between the divided Koreas further escalated after Pyongyang conducted and announced its first nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Kim Yong-nam was the highest North Korean official to meet South Korean representatives following his country's decision earlier in the week to resume international negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.
Roh Hoe-chan, a DLP representative who traveled to the communist state, however, said the North Korean official remained doubtful about any progress at the proposed round of the nuclear disarmament talks that also involve South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
"Kim said the talks could go well, but at the same time they may not," Roh told reporters at the airport.
"(He) said it would depend on the United States' position on its financial sanctions" against the North, Roh added.
Pyongyang stayed away from the nuclear negotiations since last November, calling on Washington to first lift its sanctions on a Macau bank suspected of circulating counterfeit U.S. dollars printed in the North.
North Korea says it decided to return to the six-nation talks "on the premise that the issue of lifting (the U.S.) financial sanctions will be discussed and settled" at the negotiations.
Washington is moving cautiously, saying the financial issue would be discussed within the six-party process when it resumes, but that the next step on the financial restrictions against the communist nation has not been decided.
The DLP delegates had asked to meet with the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, but they said no such meeting was held.
The Koreas technically remain in a state of war as the fratricidal Korean War ended only with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Incheon, Nov. 4 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea proposes resuming reunions of separated families: opposition party |
