Two Koreas near deal on reunions of split families
SEOUL (Reuters) - The rival Koreas were expected to finish talks on Friday about resuming reunions of families torn apart by the Korean War, in a rare meeting as the isolated North reaches out to its foes after being hit by U.N. sanctions.
In another move to defrost ties with a traditional adversary, North Korea sent a delegation to the United States last week to discuss resuming nongovernmental food aid to the impoverished communist state that battles chronic shortages, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted informed sources as saying.
Analysts said conciliatory moves made by the destitute North this month may be to bolster its coffers after U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test in May made it more difficult to trade arms, cutting into a key source of cash that estimates say could be worth about 6 percent of its $17 billion (10.4 billion pound) a year economy.
The two Koreas are near a deal to resume reunions in early October for about 100 families from both sides of the border that will be held at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, which is run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group, officials said.
They have not yet reached an agreement for the exact dates of the highly emotionally meeting of families who left siblings, parents and relatives on the other side of the divided peninsula when the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a cease-fire.
The South has also been pressing the North to account for more than 1,000 of its citizens who were either abducted by the communist state or were prisoners of the Korean War who were not allowed to return after the fighting ended.
BOSWORTH WON'T VISIT
"We are proposing that the two sides put into a (written) agreement that we together will give more weight to these issues," a South Korean delegate told reporters, Yonhap reported from Mount Kumgang, where the talks are being held.
North Korea suspended the reunions in anger at the policies of the South's President Lee Myung-bak, who took office about 18 months ago. Lee cut off unconditional aid and told Pyongyang that money would come again when it ends its nuclear arms programme.
The North this month ended its boycott of the Lee government by sending a delegation to the South for its first contact with Lee since he took office, while its official media has suspended the torrent of insults that had been directed at Lee for months.
North Korea also released two U.S. journalists it had held since March when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang in August and met the leader Kim Jong-il.
South Korean media reports this week said during the Clinton visit, the North had requested the U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, to come to Pyongyang in September.
But Bosworth will not visit North Korea if he goes to Asia soon nor does he have plans to meet North Korean officials elsewhere in the region, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
Philip Goldberg, Washington's point man for the U.N. sanctions on the North, has been in Asia in recent days trying to build support for the measures.
Investors in Seoul said the softer tone from Pyongyang has not had a major impact on trading, but it has eased concerns about an escalation of troubles leading to a conflict that would threaten the globally important economies of the region.
(Additional reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Ken Wills)