South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) began talks for the reunion of separated families in Mount Gumgang area on Wednesday, local media said.

Kim Young-chol (R), general secretary of Red Cross of the Republic of Korea (ROK), shakes hands with Choi Song-ik, vice chairman of the central committee of the Red Cross of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), during their meeting in Mountain Gumgang area in the DPRK, on Aug. 26, 2009. South Korea and the DPRK began talks for the reunion of separated families in Mount Gumgang area on Wednesday, local media said. Delegates from Red-cross societies of the two side held a preliminary meeting from 5:40 pm, said the Yonhap News Agency. [Xinhua]

Delegates from Red Cross societies of the two sides held a preliminary meeting from 5:40 p.m., the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The three-day meeting is aimed at arranging reunions of separated families set in early October, the latest in a series of recent conciliatory signals that the North is sending to the South.

Kim Young-chel (L), chief delegate and secretary general of the South Korean Red Cross office, is greeted by his DPRK counterpart Choe Song-ik (R) upon Kim's arrival at Mount Kumgang hotel in Mt. Kumgang of DPRK August 26, 2009.[Xinhua]

The dialogue, the first in 21 months, follows an agreement between the DPRK and South Korea's Hyundai Group to boost joint ventures and resume suspended reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 war.

The accord suggests holding the reunions on the traditional holiday of Chuseok (Mid-Autumn festival), which falls on Oct. 3 this year.

Tens of thousands of families have been separated by barbed wire and minefields since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The family reunion program began in 2000 after a historic inter-Korean summit between the two sides.

Since then, the two sides have held 16 rounds of face-to-face reunions and seven rounds of video exchanges.

The last reunions were in October 2007. The program was suspended as ties between Pyongyang and Seoul turned sour after South Korea's conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak came to power in February 2008.

Kim Young-chel (C), secretary general of South Korea's Red Cross and the head of delegation for the inter-Korean Red Cross talks, waves with other members of the delegation before they leave the Office of the South Korea-DPRK Dialogue in Seoul August 26, 2009, to go to DPRK's Mt. Kumgang for the inter-Korean talks.[Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2009)