The two Koreas exchanged the results of their search for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War ahead of a reunion event in August, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.
Documents compiled following the weekslong search were exchanged by Red Cross officials from the respective sides at the border village of Panmunjom around 11 a.m., officials said.
Korean Red Cross employees holding documents of results of their search for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on Wednesday. (Yonhap)
As part of efforts to implement agreements reached between their leaders at the April summit, the two Koreas have agreed to hold family reunions from Aug. 20-26 at the Kumgangsan resort on the North’s east coast.
Tuesday’s exchange came nearly a month after Red Cross talks where they first hammered out details of the reunions. South Korea wanted the North to locate 250 people, while the North asked the South to confirm the status of 200 people here.
The two sides on Aug. 4 will draw the final list of people for the reunions. One hundred people from each side will be reunited with their family members.
South Korea first selected 500 applicants through a computer lottery, but the number was gradually reduced to 250 due to the old age and health of the family members.
A South Korean team of officials, businesses, and workers has been dispatched to the Kumkangsan area since July 9 to work on repair of the reunion venue. The United Nations Security Council has agreed to exempt cross-border transfer of materials needed for the repair from sanctions, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said during a parliamentary session Tuesday.
While Wednesday’s exchange of lists took place as planned, there are lingering concerns that Pyongyang’s demand for the repatriation of female North Korean restaurant workers might jeopardize the reunions. North Korea recently ramped up its call for the return of 12 workers whose mass defection to the South in 2016, according to the manager of the restaurant, was orchestrated by Seoul’s spy agency.
North Korea’s state media continue to link the issue to the reunion, threatening that the reunion event could be called off if Seoul does not return the workers.
The upcoming reunion event will be the first since October 2015. The two Koreas have held 20 rounds of face-to-face family reunions since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
About 130,000 South Koreans were initially registered as members of separated families, but only about 57,000 applied for this year’s reunion, according to the Korea Red Cross here, indicating that more than half had already died. The majority of the remaining members are in their 70s or older.
By Jung Min-kyung (
mkjung@heraldcorp.com)