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Korean family reunion talks begin | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Red Cross officials from North and South Korea have begun talks aimed at allowing families divided by the border to begin meeting again. | |
The reunions have been suspended for almost two years because of worsening ties between the two nations. | |
This new round of negotiations reflects a recent improvement in relations between the two sides, and reunions could now resume as early as October. | |
About 100,000 families were separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. | |
The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says that for hundreds of thousands of them, time is running out. | |
The North and South are still technically at war, as a peace treaty was never concluded at the end of the inter-Korean conflict. | |
There are still no exchanges by post, telephone or e-mail between people living across the heavily fortified border. | |
Limited numbers | Limited numbers |
The three-day official talks are being held in the North Korean resort of Diamond Mountain (Mount Kumgang). | |
Thousands of families were separated by the 1950-53 war | Thousands of families were separated by the 1950-53 war |
"Since it is a meeting being held after a year and nine months, the main topic is the dispersed family issue," chief South Korean delegate Kim Young-chol said. | |
Even if talks are successful, it is likely that only a fraction of those families on the waiting list will be able to see their relatives in the highly emotional but all-too-brief meetings, our correspondent says. Only about 100 families are likely to be involved. | |
In the early part of the decade, the two countries regularly held Red Cross talks to discuss family reunions and other humanitarian issues. About 16,000 families were briefly reunited. | |
However the reunions were stopped after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February 2008, amid North Korean anger at his policy of ending unconditional aid handouts. | |
He has tied a resumption of aid to progress on North Korean nuclear disarmament. | He has tied a resumption of aid to progress on North Korean nuclear disarmament. |
Earlier this year, relations between North Korea and the rest of the world were extremely strained. It was heavily criticised in May for conducting its second nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile launches. | |
But the agreement to hold the Red Cross talks is just one of a series of conciliatory gestures by North Korea in recent weeks. | |
Last week, Northern officials attended the funeral of South Korea's former President Kim Dae-jung. | |
Former US President Bill Clinton also visited the North recently, and secured the release of two American journalists detained there. | |
North Korea also announced this month that it would ease restrictions on cross-border traffic imposed last year amid the rising tension. |