The Two Koreas Agree to Hold Family Reunion in Late February

North Korean working-level delegation head, Park Yong Il and Lee Duk-haeng, his South Korean counterpart sealed the family reunion agreement on Wednesday, scheduled in late February. The meeting was held at the North Korean side of the border village of Panmunjom. This agreement of the two Koreas is seen to jump-start the reunification program that has been stalled for some time. The programs allows selected family members separated by the Korean War to hold a brief reunion.

Representatives of the two countries met at the Panmunjom border village. Both representatives agreed that the reunions will be held from February 20 to 25. The venue will be the resort in Mount Kumgang in North Korea, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry. The cross-border affairs is managed by this office. If the reunion pushes through this time, it will be the first since 2010. A reunion was scheduled last September but it was cancelled by North Korea, which deemed that there were some hostility from South Korea.

Separation of families

The 1950 to 1953 Korean War had divided millions of families in the Korean Peninsula after the still-unresolved conflict separated the peninsula into South Korea and North Korea. All forms of communication and free private travel access across the border were banned. There are still about 70,000 South Koreans that are looking forward to meeting their lost relatives during this very rare reunions. So far about 18,000 have met their relatives in person while 4,000 did it through video when the two sides have a détente. No one has had the chance to meet a relative a second time as the successful candidates are selected through lottery.

Upcoming military drills

At the end of February the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills are scheduled to begin. Analysts view the decision to allow the reunions as surprising, considering that the military drills used to cause tensions between the two countries.

Conciliatory moves?

The usual harsh grandiosity that North Korea normally throws against South Korea has recently been toned down considerably. Some see the family reunions as a move to get some concessions from South Korea. It could be a lifting of some sanctions or easing down on the joint military drills of the U.S. and South Korea. The actual reason is still uncertain although there have been calls from Pyongyang to improve ties with the South.

Organizing, a headache

Organizing these family reunions is quite complex. Unauthorized contact is not allowed between the two Koreas, Many families living in the South do not know if their relatives are still alive. They also do not have the addresses of their relatives in the North.

There are thousands of people from both sides that put up their hands for selection and the decision on the final 100 people from each side is a major headache. Many complain that the 100 people selected from each side is too few, considering that most of them are in the mid-70s and early 80s already. They say that they might never get the chance to meet their relatives before they leave this earth.

Despite what analysts say, this is still a good sign, because it shows a glimpse of cooperation between the neighboring nations, as rare as it is.

Photo credit: Taken by calflier001 under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.