Related
News
- US envoy to meet north Koreans
- S. Korean police arrest "pastor" over child killings
- RI navy`s submarine returning from s korea after repair
Seoul
(ANTARA News/AFP) - North Korea Saturday rejected the South`s call for talks
aimed at restarting reunions for families separated since the Korean War,
saying Seoul should first respond to its conditions for dialogue.
South
Korea`s Red Cross Tuesday proposed the talks to discuss a resumption of the
temporary reunions for family members separated since the 1950-1953 war.
Pyongyang`s
Minju Joson newspaper accused Seoul of talking about reunions and other
exchanges while secretly seeking sanctions.
If the
South was genuinely interested in family reunions and other exchanges, the
paper said, it should reply to a "questionnaire" addressed to Seoul`s
leaders this month.
The
questionnaire told the South`s leaders to "repent of their crimes"
following the December 17 death of the North`s leader Kim Jong-Il and to honour
past summit agreements.
It accused
them of showing disrespect during the mourning period for Kim and told them to
halt major exercises with US troops and halt "vicious" smear
campaigns.
The South
has dismissed the demands as unreasonable.
Hundreds of
thousands of family members were separated during the war, which sealed the
division of the peninsula. There are no civilian mail or phone connections
across the border, and many do not even know whether their relatives are alive
or dead.
The last
temporary reunions, arranged by the two Koreas` Red Cross authorities but
authorised by governments on both sides, began in October 2010.
Plans for
further events were scrapped after the North shelled a frontline island in the
South in November that year, killing four people.
Since 2000
sporadic events have briefly reunited more than 17,000 people face-to-face and
an estimated 3,700 -- usually those too frail to travel -- via video link.
But 80,000
people in the South alone are on the waiting list for reunions and thousands
die every year before getting their chance.
Editor: Priyambodo RH
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.