Recent Korean summit allows reunions of split families

SEOUL: For the last 28 years, the Red Cross chapters of South and North Korea have held talks on and off for reunions of family members separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. Each time, those in the South who have relatives in the North prayed for the success of meeting that could give them an opportunity to learn the fate of their family members and better still to be reunited with them.

But all but one of those meetings ended in failure, dashing their hopes. And the only successful meeting, in 1985, did not come close to satisfying all of their expectations as only a lucky few were given the chance to meet their relatives in the North in an exchange of visits involving just 151 people on both sides.

Some others in the South later were able to meet their relatives from the North in a third country, mostly in China, with the help of paid brokers.

A historic agreement made by President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during their recent summit in Pyongyang has rekindled the yearnings of the separated families in the South. The two leaders agreed, at the first-ever inter-Korean summit, to settle the longstanding reunion issue, not for all split families but only for a small percentage of them at the initial stage.

At his Chong Wa Dae meeting Saturday with the opposition Grand National Party leader, Lee Hoi-chang, President Kim disclosed that he and his North Korean counterpart tentatively agreed that over 100 people will be involved in the initial reunion program, which is expected to take place around Aug. 15, the 55th Liberation Day Anniversary.

The Red Cross chapters of both sides are expected to hold talks later this month to discuss details. The prospect is that those who will visit Pyongyang for reunions with their relatives in the North this time are likely to be selected from among some 250,000 in the South who are aged 70 and over.

If the program ends as a one-time affair as it did 15 years ago, it will cause great frustration not just to those with separated families in the North but to the entire nation.

The South's Red Cross delegation needs to make this point very clear to its North Korean counterpart. It must try to win an agreement from Pyongyang on arranging and implementing the reunion program on a regular basis, say once a month or once every two months.

And it needs to go further and discuss more fundamental issues with the North, such as determining the fate and whereabouts of the separated families in the South and the North, providing for an exchange of letters between them, arranging an exchange of visits and permitting the permanent reunions for those who want them. These are the matters that can assist the split families on a gradual and realistic basis and pave the way for the final reunions.

If the North is reluctant to continue the exchange of reunion visits for its domestic political and other reasons, both sides could agree on a venue where reunions can take place without embarrassing the northern authorities.

Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone, could be used as such a place. For those elderly separated family members who have few years remaining to their lives, such a neutral reunion site would be acceptable, if not satisfactory.

There is no reason why the South and North Korean Red Cross chapters cannot discuss these issues at a time when the top leaders of both sides have agreed on a five-point principle to end the enmity of over a half century for peaceful coexistence and eventual reunification of the divided land.

This time, the northern side may also want to discuss the repatriating of prisoners who have served out long sentences on conviction of spying for North Korea and who have refused to renounce Communist ideology.

If it does so, the southern side needs to raise the issue of South Koreans who have been abducted by the North and of the South Korean prisoners of war from the three-year Korean conflict who still remain in the North.

The joint statement announced after the summit made no mention of these South Korean captives in the North, who also include fishermen. But from a humanitarian viewpoint, their fate must be discussed by both sides.

Pyongyang may say that they remain in North Korea out of their own accord, but that is a disputable point. Whether they want to stay there or return home to the South is a matter that needs to be ascertained through a neutral party.

Without addressing these humanitarian issues, no genuine progress is expected in the effort for reconciliation.

-- The Korea Herald/Asia News Network