This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Two Koreas to Go Ahead With Reunions of Families Split by War
2 Koreas to Proceed With Reunions of Families Separated by War
(about 17 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea agreed Friday to honor its earlier agreement to allow hundreds of elderly people separated by the Korean War six decades ago to reunite with their long-lost relatives later this month, officials in Seoul said.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Friday that it would honor its agreement to allow hundreds of older Koreans separated by the war on the peninsula six decades ago to reunite with their long-lost relatives, officials here said.
North Korea had threatened to scrap the reunions unless South Korea canceled the joint annual military exercises it planned to begin with the United States on Feb. 24. During a high-level inter-Korean government meeting on the border on Wednesday, the North insisted that if the South could not cancel the drills, it should at least postpone them for a few days so they would not overlap with the family reunions slated for Feb. 20-25.
North Korea had threatened to scrap the reunions scheduled for this month unless South Korea canceled the joint annual military exercises it planned to begin with the United States on Feb. 24. During a high-level inter-Korean government meeting on Wednesday, the North said that if the South could not cancel the drills, it should at least postpone them for a few days so they would not overlap with the reunions slated for Feb. 20-25.
But during the second round of border talks on Friday, North Korea retracted its demand and agreed to hold the reunions as scheduled, Kim Kyu-hyun, the chief South Korean delegate, said during a news conference.
But during the second round of talks on Friday, North Korea retracted its demand and agreed to hold the reunions as scheduled, said Kim Kyu-hyun, the chief South Korean delegate.
The softening of the North’s stance came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry of the United States rejected Pyongyang’s demand. He urged the North not to use the defensive military exercises as an excuse to interfere with a humanitarian project.
The softening of the North’s stance came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry rejected Pyongyang’s demand.
If held, the highly emotional family reunions would mark a notable sign that relations were thawing on the peninsula after years of high tensions triggered by the North’s nuclear and missile tests, which have resulted in United Nations sanctions.
If held, the family reunions would signal that relations were thawing on the peninsula after a particularly tense period last year following a North Korean nuclear test that resulted in new international sanctions.
Mr. Kim said his delegation painstakingly explained President Park Geun-hye’s “trust politics” to North Koreans. Since her inauguration in February last year, Ms. Park has said that South Korea would help the impoverished North with trade and aid — but not until the North takes meaningful actions to show that it can be trusted.
Mr. Kim said his delegation explained that the reunions could be an important part of policy of “trust politics” espoused by South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye. Since her inauguration in February last year, Ms. Park has said that South Korea would help the impoverished North with trade and aid — but not until the North took meaningful actions to show that it could be trusted.
“We told them that the family reunions could be an important first step of the trust-building process,” Mr. Kim said.
The two Koreas also agreed to stop slandering each other, Mr. Kim said, after an earlier request for this by the North, which is known for its flights of rhetoric against the South and the United States. The delegates also agreed to hold high-level talks again, but did not set a date, the South Korean side said.
The United States and South Korea remained concerned about what South Korean officials called “mixed signals” from the North, which has been calling for dialogue even as it has continued to expand its nuclear and missile programs. They feared that North Korea, as it has in the past, might use the prospect of easing tensions as political bait to win concessions from Washington and Seoul or as a smokescreen for fresh aggression.
North Korea — a police state with near-total control of information — had earlier made another demand the South would not accept: It wanted Seoul to gag conservative domestic news media and commentators whose criticism North Korean officials said had damaged the prestige of their top leader, Kim Jong-un.
Such a deep-seated skepticism of the North Korean regime formed the backdrop when Ms. Park called for “a trust-building process” and when Washington, as Mr. Kerry repeated on Thursday in Seoul, insisted that it would hold no more “talks for the sake of talks” with Pyongyang.
Some South Korean news media and commentators have turned more hostile toward Mr. Kim and have become more skeptical about the stability of his government after he had his uncle Jang Song-thaek executed in December.
The border talks this week marked the highest-level dialogue between the two Koreas in seven years. They were first proposed by the North, whose leader, Kim Jong-un, called for a reduction in military tensions and improved ties with the South during his New Year’s Day speech.
Family reunions remain a highly emotional issue for Koreans, and they are considered a key barometer of relations between the nations. No telephone, letter or email exchanges are allowed between the citizens of the two countries, so for the families separated by the war, the occasional government-arranged reunions are virtually the only chance they have to meet.
On Jan. 6, Park suggested that the two Koreas take “a good first step with family reunions.” Earlier this month, they agreed to hold the reunions, which were last held in 2010. Then, the North began threatening to cancel them, arguing that the annual military exercises raised tensions and hurt the political mood for the reunions.
The Koreas held their last family reunions in 2010.
Washington and Seoul viewed the North Korean demand for a delay of the war games as part of its longstanding attempt to disrupt their military alliance.
In recent days, South Korea has sent several trucks and 100 officials and workers to clear a heavy snowfall that has recently blanketed the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea, where the reunions are supposed to take place.
During their border meeting on Friday, the two Koreas also agreed to stop slandering each other, Mr. Kim said. They also agreed to hold high-level talks again, but did not set a date for the next meeting, he said.
North Korea had earlier made another demand the South would not accept: It wanted Seoul to gag its conservative domestic media and commentators whose criticism North Korean officials said had damaged the prestige of their top leader, Mr. Kim.
Some South Korean media and commentators have turned more hostile toward Mr. Kim and become more skeptical about the stability of his regime following the purge and execution of Jang Song-thaek, an uncle and presumed mentor of Mr. Kim, in December.
To fend off the North Korean demand for press censorship, Mr. Kim, the South Korean delegate, said he quoted the former American President Thomas Jefferson, who said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Family reunions remain a highly emotional issue for Koreans, and they are considered a key barometer of relations between the nations. No telephone, letter and email exchanges are allowed between the citizens of the two countries. And for the families separated by the war, the occasional government-arranged reunions are virtually the only chance separated relatives have to see each other.
South Korea has sent several trucks and 100 officials and workers to clear a heavy snowfall that has recently blanketed the Diamond Mountain resort in southeast North Korea, where the reunions are supposed to take place.
Another advance team of South Koreans planned to travel to the North Korean resort on Saturday to prepare for the reunions, said Kim Eui-do, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry in Seoul.
