South Korean Red Cross President Park Kyung-seo, right, speaks before leaving for Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea to attend the South and North Korea meeting to discuss resumption of reunions of separated families on Friday. /Korea Pool/Newsis via AP
SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korean officials met on Friday for talks on resuming reunions of families divided by the 1950-1953 Korean War as the rivals boost reconciliation amid a diplomatic push to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Seoul’s Unification Ministry said the meeting will discuss ways to carry out an agreement on the reunions made between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a summit in April.
Kim and Moon met again in May, and their two summits have opened various channels of peace talks between the Koreas.
The rivals recently agreed to restore cross-border military hotline communication channels, and field joint teams in some events at the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia.
In their first meeting, the Korean leaders agreed to hold the family reunions around August 15, an anniversary celebrated in both countries marking the Korean Peninsula’s independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II in 1945.
Friday’s talks are expected to set up the exact date and location for the reunions, as well as determine the number of people participating from both countries.
Reunion programs are highly emotional as most wishing to take part are elderly people, who are eager to reunite with their loved ones before they die.
They were driven apart during the turmoil of the Korean War.
The meeting could get contentious if North Korean officials reiterate the country’s demand for the return of 12 North Korean restaurant workers in return for allowing reunions.
Seoul has maintained the 12 women willingly settled in South Korea in 2016 but is now reviewing the circumstances following a media report suggesting at least some were brought against their will. The North rejected a South Korean proposal for family reunions last year, seeking the workers’ return first.