Saturday, 23/06/2018 10:03 (GMT+7)
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (RoK) on June 22nd kicked off Red Cross talks to discuss humanitarian issues, including a planned reunion event for families separated by the Korean War.
(Photo: AFP/VNA)
Delegations from the two sides began the talks at 10h00 local time, as scheduled, at a hotel in the DPRK’s resort mountain of Kumgang.
The two sides have agreed to discuss the reunion of separated families and "proceed with reunion programs" around August 15th, the day marking the 73rd anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule, according to the Panmunjom Declaration signed by DPRK leader Kim Jong-un and RoK’s President Moon Jae-in at their first summit on April 27th.
Data showed that the registered number of Koreans seeking to meet their loved ones in the DPRK totaled 132,124 as of end-May, of which only about 57,000 remains alive. Some 86 percent of them are in their 70s and older.
Earlier, the DPRK’s leader Kim Jong-un on April 27th officially stepped over a cracked slab of concrete on the world’s most heavily armed border to greet the RoK President Moon Jae-in.
The two leaders met at the Demilitarised Zone that divides the two countries for a historic summit, the highest-level encounter yet in a recent whirlwind of nuclear diplomacy.
"I am happy to meet you," said President Moon to Kim. President Moon Jae-in also briefly stepped into the DPRK before walking back.
"A new history begins now, at the starting point of history and the era of peace," read the message President Kim wrote in a guestbook at the Peace House summit venue.
President Kim Jong-un became the first DPRK leader to cross into RoK territory since the Korean war ended in an armistice that signed on July 27th, 1953, with neither side able to claim outright victory./.
Compiled by BTA