S. Korea sends advance team to North for family reunions

(ATTN: UPDATES headline, lead with team's arrival in N.K., Red Cross chief to attend
family reunion through 6th para)
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- An advance team from Seoul traveled to North Korea
Monday to prepare for upcoming reunions between families separated by the Korean
War, the first in nearly two years, officials here said.
Two hundred people will be reunited with long-lost relatives from Sept. 26 to
Oct. 1 at the Mount Kumgang resort on the North's east coast. Pyongyang agreed
last month to the reunions, which have not been held since late 2007, in what was
part of a string of reconciliatory moves.
The 10-member advance team formed of South Korean Red Cross and government
officials "is going to check through detailed schedules, reunion places and
accommodations as well as communication channels and other facilities with the
North," Chun Hae-sung, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, said in a
press briefing.
Arranged by the Red Cross offices of the two countries, North-South family
reunions were launched in 2000 following the historic first inter-Korean summit
that year. They were cut off after conservative South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office last year pledging to get tough on the North's nuclear
program -- a stance that led to the deterioration of cross-border ties.
Two separate, back-to-back events will be held at the scenic mountain, first
reuniting 100 South Korean families with their North Korean relatives for three
days, and then 100 North Koreans with their relatives from the South. The lists
of the names of the participants were exchanged last week.
South Korean Red Cross President Yoo Chong-ha will travel to the North with the
South Korean families, his office said, and a meeting with his North Korean
counterpart Jang Jae-on is expected.
About 600,000 people in the South are believed to have kin in the North from whom
they have been separated since the 1950-53 war. Candidates were first selected
through a computer lottery, with the final lists being drawn from applicants
whose relatives were located, giving priority to immediate family members and the
elderly.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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