SEOUL — A large delegation of South Koreans is likely to visit North Korea to meet-their Northern family members and relatives around August 15, Red Cross officials said June 16.
‘We have to discuss the details with the North first, but we are sure the number of reunions will be much larger than that in 1985,” said Korea National Red Cross (KNRC) secretary general Park Ki-ryun in a phone interview with The Korea Times.
In 1985, the two Koreas reached an agreement on family reunions and allowed 100 people to cross the border.
Immediately after President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il produced the “June 15 Joint Declaration” in Pyongyang, the Seoul government began preparations for family reunions that are to take place around Aug. 15.
South and North Korea will launch Red Cross talks this month to prepare details of reunions of families torn apart by the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Park, who accompanied President Kim to Pyongyang, said, “As President Kim Dae-jung has already said, we believe the Red Cross talks will take place within this month after we start consultations with the government next week.”
According to the Unification Ministry, there are around 7,670,000 South Koreans who have family members across the border. Of these, some 690,000 are over 60 years old.
A total of 2,300 people have lodged applications with the Red Cross alone and, since the announcement of the summit, the number of applications has increased five times compared to last month, the Red Cross official said.
“We haven’t set the criteria, but senior citizens will be chosen first,” he said.
Three businessmen who accompanied President Kim to the historic event each met with relatives in Pyongyang, and expressed optimism on increased reunions in the future.
“In the past, people did not mention the names of their relatives in Pyongyang because they thought it could harm them. However, what I noticed in this visit was that you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Kohap chairman Chang Chi-hyeok told reporters.
However, analysts here expressed concerns on whether reunions could take place more than once.
“The agreement on family reunions is very vague. We hope this does not end with one meeting,” Choi Eui-chul of the Korean Institute of National Unification told The Korea Times.
‘The agreement signed is not much different from the previous one and we will just have to wait and see. But if it does end without regular reunions, President Kim will face some problems as the people will not be so willing to back economic aid to North,” he added.