AP - Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:28:00 AM By JAE-SOON CHANG
Photo By AP
North and South Korea were close to agreement Friday on a schedule for reuniting families long separated by the Korean War, in rare talks being held amid Pyongyang's push to reach out to Seoul and Washington, reports said.
Red Cross officials from the two sides were expected to wrap up three days of talks with an accord to hold six days of temporary reunions involving a total of 200 families from Sept. 26, according to reports in local media accredited to cover the talks. They cited an unidentified South Korean delegate.
However, the sides failed to reach agreement on how to address the issue of hundreds of South Korean prisoners of war and civilian abductees believed alive in the North, because the communist nation refused to discuss the matter, the official was cited as saying.
The meetings came after the North adopted a more conciliatory stance toward South Korea and the U.S. following months of defiant provocations including its second nuclear test in May and a barrage of banned ballistic missile launches.
Earlier this month, the North freed two American journalists and a South Korean worker after more than four months of detention and pledged to restart some joint projects, including the meetings of separated families that have been stalled since the inauguration of a conservative government in Seoul about 18 months ago.
The North also sent a delegation to Seoul to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
South Korean media reported earlier this week that Pyongyang invited Washington's two top envoys on North Korea to visit in what would be their first nuclear talks since President Barack Obama took office.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Thursday that the U.S. has not received a formal invitation from the North. He also said special envoy Stephen Bosworth plans to travel to Asia soon, but won't go to North Korea.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Friday that four North Korean officials visited the U.S. last week to meet with American relief organizations and discuss the resumption of food aid to the impoverished nation. But their trip did not include meetings with U.S. government officials, Yonhap said, citing unidentified sources in Washington.
Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
South Korea estimates that 560 of its soldiers from the war remain alive in North Korea, in addition to 504 South Korean civilians -- mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end.
North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies holding any prisoners of war.
No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border.
A landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000 paved the way for temporary face-to-face reunions of 16,210 Koreans and video reunions for more than 3,740 others.
The reunions were held annually but were suspended as North Korea cut off most ties to protest South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang.
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Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim, Hyung-jin Kim and Wanjin Park contributed to this report.
