North and South Korea reach deal on family reunions http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSEO29202220070302
Fri Mar 2, 2007
By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea agreed on Friday to resume reunions of families separated during the Korean War in a step toward improving ties chilled by Pyongyang's weapons tests last year.
In their first high-level contact since the North stormed out of a meeting in July, the two Koreas also pledged swift implementation of a pact signed with four other countries last month on shutting down Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-young said after the end of the talks that Seoul was willing to offer fertilizer to the North in time for spring sowing as and when Pyongyang makes a formal request.
"We plan in principle to provide rice and fertilizer at a level done in previous years, but there will be a process for that," Lee told reporters in Pyongyang.
Friday's deal calls for separate economic talks, which in the past dealt with food aid and other commercial projects, as Seoul offers economic incentives to ensure Pyongyang honors its nuclear bargain. South Korea has given as much as 500,000 tonnes of rice to the North and 350,000 tonnes of fertilizer a year.
"The South and the North will resume cooperation projects in the humanitarian field and work to resolve substantively the issue of separated families," the joint press statement issued after the four-day meeting in Pyongyang said.
The next round of family reunions takes place in early May. It will be preceded by reunions by a video link on March 27, the statement said.
North Korea, angered at Seoul's decision to suspend food aid after Pyongyang defied warnings and test-fired a series of missiles last July, halted the reunions of elderly Koreans, many of whom said it was their dying wish to see relatives on the other side of the sealed border.
South Korea has been reluctant to resume full-scale food aid to the North until Pyongyang starts to fulfil pledges to dismantle its atomic arms program under the six-way nuclear agreement. "The South and the North will work jointly to ensure a sound implementation of the agreement reached at (the six-way talks) on denuclearising and peace on the Korean peninsula," the joint statement also said.
The talks took on fresh momentum after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on October 9.
Separately, North Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, is visiting the United States to discuss the possibility of Washington and Pyongyang normalizing ties.
North Korea will have similar discussions with Japan in Hanoi next week. The two Koreas are technically still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not with a peace treaty.
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