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Second Inter-Korean Family Reunions to Start
The second inter-Korean family reunions since the peninsula was divided half century ago will begin simultaneously in Seoul and Pyongyang on the afternoon of Thursday, November 30.
A 151-member South Korean delegation, including chief delegate Pong Du-wan, vice president of the Korea National Red Cross, 30 supporting personnel and 20 journalists, left for Pyongyang by a Korean Air plane at 12.47 a.m. Thursday.
The same plane is expected to return to Seoul at 3:30. p.m. Thursday, carrying 136 people, including 36 staff members and journalists, from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to Seoul for family reunions.
The group reunions will start at 4:30 p.m. at the Millennium Hall of the Central City in Seoul.
The South Korean Red Cross society will host a dinner for the DPRK visitors Thursday night.
Under an agreement, the visitors will have two rounds of individual reunions with family members in their own rooms Friday at the Lotte World Hotel, where they are staying for the three-day family-reunion visit and they will be allowed to have lunch with their family members as well.
A similar schedule awaits the South Korean visitors to the DPRK, as previously agreed upon by Seoul and Pyongyang. The 151-member delegation will stay at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang.
"The government will spend about 950 million won (some US$900,000) this time," said Hong Yang-ho, director general of the Unification Ministry's inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation bureau.
The South Korean government reportedly spent some US$2 million for the first reunions which were held from August 15 to 18 this year.
According to the agreement, all separated family members will spend a total of nine hours each with their separated family members or relatives during the three-day stay.
The family reunions are seen as the biggest fruit of the inter-Korean rapprochement since the historic inter-Korean summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il from June 13 to 15 this year.
More Family Reunions to Take Place in Korea This Year
North and South sides of Korea agreed August 30 to hold exchanges of separated families at least two more times before the end of the year. Both sides also agreed to exchange a group of about 100 tourists from each side to visit Mount Baekdu in the North and Mount Halla in the South.
Park Jae-kyu, the head of the southern delegation, and Jon Kum-jin, his northern counterpart, held a series of ministerial meetings in Pyongyang and agreed on those points.
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