ROK, DPRK hold another talks over family reunion
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South Korea and the Democratic People ' s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held Friday another round of talks over reuniting families torn asunder by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Red Cross officials from both sides of the border met at 10:07 a.m. local time in the border city of Kaesong, where they are expected to discuss the venue and schedule for the family reunion events, according to Seoul's unification ministry.
"We'll first try to reach an agreement on the venue and on holding the event at an early date," Kim Eyi-do, head of the South Korean delegation, told reporters before crossing the border.
Two previous rounds of talks in September hit a snag as the DPRK demanded South Korea resume tours to its mountain resort, suspended after a shooting death there in 2008 of a South Korean tourist, before it allows Seoul to use facilities there. South Korea sees the two issues separately.
Family reunions were last held in September 2009, the 16th such meetings. More than 80,000 South Koreans are presumed to be waiting for a rare chance for rendezvous with their families north of the border. The talks also come a day after the two sides failed to narrow their difference on the March sinking of a South Korean warship during their first working-level military talks in two years.
Tension has been on the rise on the divided Korean peninsula over the fatal sinking blamed on Pyongyang's torpedo attack, a charge the DPRK vehemently rejects, but observers say recent rounds of talks are hinting at a willingness on the part of both sides to reduce instability on the peninsula.
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