Rival Koreas resume Beijing talks on family reunions<\/p>\n
BEIJING (AP): Four days after faltering over a naval skirmish
\nin the Yellow Sea, North Korea and South Korea briefly resumed
\ntalks Saturday, trading views on the clash, the detention of a
\ntourist, and reuniting families separated in their bitter 54-year
\nrivalry.<\/p>\n
Negotiators met for nearly two hours in the basement of a
\nswanky China World Hotel in Beijing before agreeing to meet again
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
Although it was unclear if any progress was made, prospects
\nfor the talks -- the highest level contacts between the
\ngovernments in 14 months -- improved with North Korea's release
\nFriday of a South Korean tourist detained for six days.<\/p>\n
\"It was regrettable about the arrest of the tourist. I welcome
\nher safe return to South Korea,\" Vice Unification Minister Yang
\nYoung-shik told the North Korean negotiators at the start of
\nSaturday's session. \"I hope that such incidents will not be
\nrepeated.\"<\/p>\n
The release was North Korea's first goodwill gesture to South
\nKorea since their navies exchanged fire in disputed waters June
\n15 and one North Korean gunboat was sunk. North Korea left the
\nopening session of the Beijing talks Tuesday demanding an apology
\nfor the sinking but later agreed to return without preconditions.<\/p>\n
\"I hope these talks will bear fruit and produce good results,\"
\nNorth Korean chief negotiator Pak Yong-su told Yang before the
\nmeeting. \"We should repay our peoples' anticipation and hope.\"<\/p>\n
During the session, South Korea presented a plan for family
\nreunions and North Korea pledged to consider it, Yang told
\nreporters afterwards. He said he and Pak agreed not to release
\ndetails of their talks.<\/p>\n
North Korea and South Korea have strong reasons to overcome
\ntheir antagonism and reach an accommodation in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Communist Pyongyang desperately needs the money the capitalist
\nSouth can provide to rebuild an economy ruined by four years of
\nfamine. South Korea's democratic President Kim Dae-jung needs a
\nbreakthrough to parry domestic critics of his more open policy
\ntoward the North, especially after the naval clash and the
\ntourist's arrest.<\/p>\n
South Korea coaxed North Korea to the negotiating table
\nearlier this month by promising to deliver 200,000 tons of
\nfertilizer by the end of July in return for discussing family
\nreunions.<\/p>\n
An estimated 10 million Koreans were separated from their
\nfamilies from the partition of the peninsula in 1945 and then
\nKorean War fought to a stalemate from 1950-1953.<\/p>\n
North Korean negotiators scuttled the last high-level talks,
\nin April 1998 also in Beijing, by refusing to discuss reunions.
\nSouth Korea's Yang, at Tuesday's session, described reunions as
\nan urgent matter, as many of those separated are elderly and
\nailing.<\/p>\n
In a display of prickliness, Pyongyang demanded Saturday's
\ntalks be moved to a new hotel after the one originally selected
\nas the venue displayed a South Korean flag, South Korea's Yonhap
\nNews Agency reported.<\/p>",
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