S. Korea offers talks with N. Korea on family reunions

The Korea National Red Cross sent a message to the North suggesting the talks be held on Thursday at the truce village of Panmunjom, said Seoul's unification ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs. "We proposed resuming the family reunion events, which were supposed to be held in September, to mark Lunar New Year," the ministry said in a statement, suggesting the working-level talks between the two countries' Red Cross officials on Jan. 10. This year's Lunar New Year's Day falls on Jan. 31. The official proposal to the communist neighbor followed South Korean President Park Geun-hye's offer of humanitarian events around the holiday. "I hope that elderly members of separated families will be allowed to reunite around Lunar New Year's Day to help heal the wounds in their hearts," Park said during a press conference earlier in the day. Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold family reunions at Mount Kumgang, a scenic mountain resort on North Korea's east coast, from Sept. 25-30, 2013, but Pyongyang unilaterally called them off at the last minute, citing "unfavorable" cross-border developments. "We hope for the North's swift response, and expect the resumption of the family reunions to be a desirable first step toward creating a new chance in the inter-Korean relations," the ministry added. More than a dozen rounds of reunions have taken place since 2000, with the most recent ones held in late 2010, bringing together more than 21,700 family members who had not seen each other since the Korean War. In the run-up to the canceled reunions last year, some 73,000 people in South Korea alone have requested to meet with their relatives in the North, and about 80 percent of them were over the age of 70, adding urgency to the issue of family reunions, according to the ministry. "Because what we proposed is to restart the delayed reunions, we plan to push for the expected events based upon the agreement at that time ... But when and where to hold them should be discussed with the North Korean side during the expected talks," unification ministry spokesperson Kim Ui-do said. Kim also reaffirmed Seoul's long-held stance of separating the issue of family reunions from the resumption of stalled tourism to the Kumgang resort after a shooting death of a South Korean tourist in 2008 by a North Korean guard there. Pyongyang has since repeatedly called for the resumption of the tourism project, which served as one of a few legitimate revenue sources for the cash-strapped country. Seoul, meanwhile, has stressed that reunions are humanitarian in nature therefore separate as the tours also concern safety issues. The unruly nation has not provided assurances demanded by Seoul that no tourist will be hurt if the tourism restarts. The proposal of the emotional events came at a time when inter-Korean relations are at a crossroads. North Korea has sent a reconciliatory gesture to the South calling for efforts to improve relations amid greater political uncertainties following the shocking execution of Jang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle of its leader Kim Jong-un.