North and South Korea will hold talks this week about restarting reunions of separated families, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said on Monday.
The North has accepted the South’s proposal to hold working-level talks on Friday at the Kaesong joint industrial estate just north of the border, a ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
The talks will be between Red Cross officials from the two sides.
The North’s Red Cross over the weekend had suggested restarting the programme, which was last held about one year ago, in an apparent sign of easing tensions.
About 80 000 elderly people in South Korea alone are desperate for a chance to see family members left in the North after the 1950 to 1953 war sealed the peninsula’s division.
There are no civilian mail or phone services between the two nations, and many families are unsure whether relatives are still alive.
But up to 4 000 of the South Koreans die each year before getting the chance for a brief reunion. — AFP