Seoul and Pyongyang begin most important round of talks in over 7 years
Seoul ( AsiaNews) - For the first time in 7 years, two government delegations from Seoul and Pyongyang have opened a round of bilateral talks in the village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula since the end of the civil war. The meeting was a "surprise" request from the North and the dialogue agenda - which has not been disclosed - in all probability will include family reunifications scheduled for February 20 and the resumption of some form of economic cooperation.
Amid highs and lows, the two
governments meet several times a year. However,
the talks that began this morning are led by two high-ranking figures: the head
of Seoul's delegation is Kim Kyou-hyun, deputy national security adviser and his
counterpart from the North is Won Tong-yon, a high-level official specialized in inter-Korean
relations .
Before
the meeting, Kim said: "This is an important opportunity, there is the
possibility of opening a new era for the Korean peninsula. I would like to
attend the meeting with 'open attitude and mind' to study the opportunity. We
will make an effort to proceed with the separated families reunion event as
agreed".
The two Koreas agreed on 5 February to hold family reunions at a resort on Mount Kumgang , North Korea's east coast, from February 20 to 25 . If the meetings go ahead they will be the first after more than three years. The next day (February 6) , the two governments exchanged the lists with the names chosen for family reunions: they are 85 people from Seoul and 95 from Pyongyang . However, again on February 6th North Korea threatened not to proceed with reunions "if the military exercises between South Korea and Washington were to take place as planned".
The exercises , which are held every year and involve about 12 thousand U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea, are seen by the "Blue House" [the South Korean presidential residence, currently Park Geun- hye -ed] as a very important strategic asset. Pyongyang calls them a "military provocation" while Seoul and Washington insist on their "purely defensive" character. IN fact the 2013 military exercises led the North to cancel family reunions scheduled for September at the last minute.
There are about 73 thousand South Koreans who want to embrace their families left behind in the North. Of the war survivors, 9.3 % are over 90 years of age, 40.5% over 80 and 30.6% over 70. The human side of the story is heartbreaking: although the two governments try to avoid public demonstrations in favor of reunions, the stories of the elderly who are hoping to see their loved ones once more before they die appear every day in the newspapers in the South
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12/02/2016 15:14
04/04/2019 13:34
