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South Korean officials travelled to North Korea Wednesday to prepare reunions for relatives separated by their tense border.
Lee Jong-chol of the Red Cross is in charge of the 18-member delegation, which was only able to enter the North with Pyongyang’s permission.
Some 93 family members from the South are set to be reunited with their North Korean relatives from next Monday to Wednesday. Then from Friday to Sunday, 88 chosen individuals from the North will have the opportunity to meet their kin from South Korea.
The events at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort will be the first of their kind since 2015 and represent a key outcome of April’s breakthrough inter-Korean summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his readiness to meet North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un “at an early date,” according to Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency Wednesday.Putin has been kept waiting for an answer after asking Kim to attend next month’s economic forum in Vladivostok, but Pyongyang did confirm this week that South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit the North Korean capital “within September.”Language hurdles plague two Koreas after years of divisionThe Russian leader’s personal message celebrated the 73rd anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, which is marked as a holiday in both the North and the South.Putin reportedly mentioned the need “to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations and important matters of the region”. They would apparently include “reciprocal cooperation” involving economic ties between Russia and both Koreas.Meanwhile, at the risk of arousing suspicion from the South’s military ally the United States, Moon declared his ambition to create a Northeast Asian ‘railroad community’ including his own country along with the North, Russia, China, Japan and Mongolia.North Korea threatens to keep nukesNorth, South Korea agree on third summit to be held in Pyongyang“This community will lead to an energy bloc and economic bloc in Northeast Asia by expanding our economic area to the northern continent and becoming the foundation of co-existence and prosperity in Northeast Asia,” the South Korean president said in his Liberation Day address.While insisting that “economic cooperation can really take off” when North Korea has denuclearized, the South’s president added that Seoul aims to connect roads and railways across the inter-Korean border by the end of the year.The U.S. has called on all countries to adhere to global sanctions against the North, which is yet to agree on a timeline for its denuclearization despite two months passing since June 12’s summit agreement between Chairman Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Pyongyang’s state-run media had recently reported threats to cancel the reunions amid criticisms of Seoul for holding firm on sanctions against the North as well as allegedly luring a group of overseas North Korean restaurant workers to escape from their post in China in 2016.
However, plans appear to be proceeding smoothly, with South Korea’s advance team in line to carry out inspections and remain in the North until the reunions are finished.
Concerns have been mounting that time is running out for 56,000 registered separated relatives in South Korea alone, given that more than seven decades have passed since the Korean War broke out.