(3rd LD) Koreas agree on first reunions in two yrs in sign of thawing ties

(ATTN: UPDATES with KCNA report, more expert quotes, minor edits, CHANGES dateline)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea agreed on Friday to hold
reunions for families separated by war half a century ago, the first such
agreement in nearly two years and a sign of improving cross-border relations.
On their third and final day of talks at the North's Mount Kumgang resort, the
two sides released a joint statement setting a new round of family reunions for
Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, shortly before the traditional Korean holiday of Chuseok. The
venue will be the scenic mountain on the east coast.
"The South and the North will continue to cooperate on the issue of separated
families and other humanitarian issues involving the Red Cross," the statement
said. The family reunions are arranged by the Red Cross offices of the two
Koreas.
The agreement was the latest sign that North Korea is shifting towards
reconciliation with the South. Family reunions have not been held since the last
round in October 2007 amid deteriorating political relations.
President Lee Myung-bak took office last year with a pledge to get tough on North
Korea's nuclear program and halted government-to-government aid to the country.
In retaliation, Pyongyang cut off dialogue, suspended family reunions and
threatened border clashes. Its nuclear and missile tests further stoked
inter-Korean tension and prompted the U.N. Security Council to tighten financial
sanctions and a trade embargo against the country.
The Choson Sinbo, a newspaper in Japan that reflects North Korea's official
position, ran a report Thursday saying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has
decided to break the impasse in inter-Korean relations.
The upcoming family reunions "will be a new watershed in improving inter-Korean
relations," the report said. "With the (North Korean) supreme leader's resolution
in August this year, a breakthrough has been made in the inter-Korean stalemate."

Reporting on the agreement Friday, the North's Korean Central News Agency said
the Koreas will continue talks on the humanitarian issues "from the standpoint of
developing the inter-Korean relations."
In the talks, North Korea accepted South Korea's proposal on the venue -- a hotel
designed for the express purpose of holding the reunions, which Seoul spent tens
of millions of dollars to build and completed last year. It has never been used
as the reunions were suspended.
But the two sides made little progress over the contentious issue of war
prisoners and missing civilians. Seoul has pushed for locating prisoners from the
1950-53 Korean War and civilians who were allegedly detained by the North during
the Cold War era -- mostly fishermen whose boats had strayed into North Korean
waters -- but those issues were excluded from the joint statement. Pyongyang kept
the negotiations narrowly focused on the main agenda item of setting the
schedule.
"These were the first Red Cross talks under this administration. It's been so
long, and we tried hard to produce good results, but not everything came out the
way we'd intended," Kim Young-chel, South Korea's chief delegate to the talks and
secretary general of the Red Cross Society in Seoul, told pool reporters.
Seoul estimates about 1,000 former prisoners and other South Koreans are still
alive in the North, though Pyongyang says it is not holding anyone against their
will.
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk University, said the
family reunions are the first success of the Lee administration in relations with
the North.
"By setting up the reunion dates, the South and the North virtually reopened
their dialogue channel," Kim said. "It's a humanitarian project that both Koreas
cannot neglect. This is a good start that will certainly improve inter-Korean
relations."
In a string of conciliatory gestures this month, Kim Jong-il sent a verbal
message to Lee wishing for "progress in inter-Korean cooperation." The message
was delivered via a North Korean delegation visiting Seoul to pay respects to
late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Kim Jong-il's counterpart in the
first summit.
North Korea also released a detained worker, lifted cross-border traffic
restrictions and restored a cross-border hotline.
Such inter-Korean overtures followed former U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit
to Pyongyang on Aug. 4. North Korea released two detained American journalists
just after Clinton's arrival, and later gestured dialogue to Washington.
Pyongyang has also reportedly invited Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S.
representative on North Korea policy. Last week, a group of Pyongyang officials
secretly visited Los Angeles to meet with U.S. relief organizations and seek the
resumption of food aid.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a politics professor at Korea University, said North Korea was
softening toward the South with the larger goal of improved relations with the
U.S. The issue of the health of the North Korean leader, who reportedly suffered
a stroke last year, created a more immediate time frame in normalizing
international relations and rebuilding its economy.
"I believe his health condition gave him a sense that the country cannot maintain
a confrontational stance indefinitely," Yoo said.
The reunion event will run for three days and bring together 100 relatives from
either side of the border. During the traditional Chuseok holiday period that
falls on the first week of October this year, Koreans return to their rural
hometowns to give thanks to their ancestors and celebrate the fall harvest.
About 600,000 South Koreans are believed to have relatives in the North. Ordinary
citizens are not allowed to make phone calls, send letters or exchange emails
across the border.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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