South Korea Proposes Date for Family Reunions With North Korea

South Korea proposed Feb. 17-22 as the dates for the renewal of reunions of families separated by the war with North Korea as the two countries seek to revive a spirit of reconciliation.

North Korea had asked the South to set the date when it proposed the resumption of reunions on Jan. 25. The last round of planned reunions was canceled in September by the North just days before they were to be held. South Korean President Park Geun Hye has urged the North to restart the program as a starting point for improving ties.

South Korea “expects a new opportunity for the inter-Korean relations to arise from smoothly conducting the family reunions,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui Do said today at a briefing.

The two Koreas held their last round of family reunions in late 2010 at the Mt. Geumgang resort just north of the border, where their armies still face off more than 60 years after the Korean War ended in a truce. With travel between the sides barred and the Korean War generation dying off, the reunions remain an emotional issue and a link to a united Korea.

About 100 people from each country were to be reunited in September. Kim said the same group of South Koreans will travel to the resort and that the South has offered talks at the border village of Panmunjom on Jan. 29 to discuss the logistics.

Mt. Geumgang was once a booming tourist destination for South Koreans and a source of hard currency for the North Korean regime. The cross-border project stopped in 2008 when a North Korean guard shot and killed a South Korean tourist at the site. The North has since pushed to reopen the tours.

Hours before the North agreed to family reunions last week, the country demanded the South cancel its annual military drills with the U.S. The South called the demand “irrational.” Those drills are generally held between late February and April.