North-South Korean family
reunion talks put on hold

By Jim Lea
Osan Bureau Chief

The next talks between South and North Korean military officials on construction projects in the Demilitarized Zone will be Dec. 21.

However, talks between the countries’ Red Cross officials on more family reunions will not be held until next year, said officials in Seoul.

The two sides are likely to finalize an agreement to open a military hot line aimed at preventing clashes during construction in the DMZ, said Defense Ministry spokesman Yoon Il-young on Saturday.

The construction projects will restore rail service between the Koreas and build a four-lane highway. The work is scheduled for completion next November at a cost of $95 million.

The talks on the projects will take place in Panmunjom, the truce village that straddles the North Korean border. This will be the third session of working-level talks since the U.N. Command and North Korean army signed an agreement giving the South Korean military administrative rights at the construction site in the buffer zone.

When the reunion talks are held next year, the two sides will set up the next reunion and work on finding a permanent reunion site. Seoul wants that site to be Panmunjom, but the North favors Mount Kumgang, a national park on the North’s southeast coast, said a spokesman for the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

Since reunions were agreed on at the summit between President Kim Dae-Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last June, two have been held, one in August and the other Dec. 1-3.

Those were only the second and third reunions allowed since the end of the Korean War. In 1985, 30 people from each side were allowed to meet their relatives in Seoul and Pyongyang. In each of the two reunions held this year, 100 people from each side took part, also meeting their relatives in the two capitals.

Bae Gi-chul contributed to this report.