Koreas agree to family reunion

Following all-night talks between the Red Cross branches of North and South Korea, both countries agreed on Tuesday to hold a reunion for families separated by the Korean War.

Approximately 100 family members from each side will be allowed to take part in the reunion slated for October 20 to 26 at North Korea's Diamond Mountain resort.

The majority of eligible candidates are at least 70 years of age. Many of them have not seen their family members since a general armistice was agreed in 1953.

According to South Korea's Unification Ministry, the agreement was reached after marathon talks at the border town of Panmunjom between Red Cross officials on both sides of the conflict.

'Wild remarks'

Meanwhile in August, North and South Korea agreed to end a military standoff, which threatened to undermine the armistice between the two countries.

Pyongyang has already accused Seoul of spinning the de-escalation as a North Korean climbdown, saying it would terminate the agreement and cancel the family reunion if Seoul continued making "wild remarks."

North Korea is expected to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of its Workers' Party with a military parade, which the South fears could lead to another escalation.

Once in a lifetime

The October reunion will mark the second of its kind in five years. The reunions were a byproduct of a North-South summit in 2000 and were expected to be held annually.

However, North Korea has frequently called them off at the last minute, denying many aging family members the ability to visit relatives they haven't seen since the end of the war.

Millions of people were separated by the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, when the Korean Peninsula was split into two parts.

ls/jr (AFP, AP, Reuters)