Koreas Hold Rare Talks on Split Families
2009-8-27 10:57
Red Cross officials from North and South Korea began three days of talks on Wednesday. This is rare contact between the two rivals. They'll be discussing the plight of families separated after the Korean War.
[Kim Young-chel, Secretary General, South Korea]:
"We're resuming this meeting after two years, and I feel very good about having this meeting, which is my first experience. Since I'm in the meeting with you, who is very experienced, I have huge expectations about good outcomes."
Currently hundreds of thousands of families are waiting to hear from the Red Cross that parents, siblings and children are alive.
South Korea has urged the North through the Red Cross talks to explain the whereabouts of more than 1,000 South Korean prisoners of war and civilians believed to be held in the North.
Pyongyang stopped the reunions almost two years ago... angry at the South for cutting aid programs and the denouncement of the North’s nuclear arms ambitions.
