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President of the South Korean Red Cross Park Kyung-seo at a conference at Mt. Kumgang regarding the second round of the 21st reunion for divided Korean families on Aug. 25
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Specifics to be discussed during working-level talks
There’s likely to be another reunion for families divided by the Korean War as early as the end of October. “My North Korean counterpart Pak Yong-il and I discussed holding one more divided family reunion before the end of the year in the same manner as the [recent] 21st reunion. We agreed that the specific date and other matters would be discussed in working-level talks at the bureau chief level,” said Park Kyung-seo, President of the South Korean Red Cross, during a press conference at Mt. Kumgang on Aug. 25. “This reunion would be roughly similar in scale to the last one. We’re talking about holding it within the year, but given the weather and other factors, if things go well, around the end of October [would be possible],” Park added. Park underlined that the two sides had made considerable progress toward reaching an understanding about the need for another reunion to be held this year. “Every year, between 3,000 and 4,000 divided family members pass away. Between seven and 10 years from now, it will probably become impossible for the reunions to be held in their current format. As someone who works on cooperative projects that are based on humanitarian concerns, I put the highest priority on the divided family reunions,” he added. Park, who hopes to take full advantage of the divided family meeting hall at Mt. Kumgang, said that he and his North Korean counterpart had exchanged views about confirming whether family members are still alive, making the reunions a regular occurrence, holding reunions over video chat and arranging visits to hometowns and ancestral graves. “I had a positive discussion about Pak Yong-il about the idea of organizing [reciprocal] hometown visits as soon as various circumstances allow,” Park said. But reporters weren’t given specifics on the extent to which the two sides had resolved their differences on the issue of hometown visits. By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
