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Seoul seeks talks with North over flood prevention, family reunions
By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- Seoul on Monday proposed talks to North Korea this week over preventing flooding of a river that runs across the two countries' shared border and on resuming reunion of families separated by the Korean War (1950-1953).
Chun Hae-sung, a spokesperson at the Unification Ministry, said the government delivered a letter proposing working-level talks on Wednesday at the North's border city of Kaesong to seek measures on preventing flooding of the Imjin River that runs along the western section of the inter-Korean border.
Signed by Seoul's Land and Transport Minister Chung Jong-hwan, the letter was forwarded to Pak Song-nam, head of the North's Ministry of Land and Environmental Conservation, Chun said.
The talks, if realized, will focus on preventing the recurrence of the North's sudden water discharge from an upstream dam in September that left six people dead in the South. The North has said that it was forced to open the floodgates to lower the water level, promising to notify the South in the future.
Flash floods have frequently caused damage to farms in South Korean border regions since North Korea began building dams along the Imjin River in 2000. But the latest incident was the first to cause human casualties.
On a separate track, the South's National Red Cross announced that its head, Yoo Chong-ha, sent a letter to his Northern counterpart Jang Jae-on proposing talks on Friday at the North's Mount Kumgang resort to explore ways to resume cross-border family reunions.
Late last month, the two Koreas held reunion events for hundreds of family members separated since the Korean War, as part of an agreement reached by the North's leader Kim Jong-il and Hyun Jeong-eun, the chairwoman of the South's Hyundai Group, a major investor in the cash-strapped nation.
The latest reunion followed a two-year hiatus, as the North suspended the events in protest at the South's President Lee Myung-bak, who suspended unconditional aid to the North and toughened up on its nuclear program.
Pyongyang has yet to promise to regularize the family reunions.
South Koreans by law cannot exchange phone calls, letters or e-mail across the border without government approval.
"The area which we have proposed is on the family reunion events, and it would be inappropriate to speculate on other areas that may be discussed," Chun said when asked how Seoul would respond should Pyongyang demand Seoul's resumption of humanitarian aid.
"We consider the family reunions our number one priority," the spokesman added.
The Koreas agreed to hold family reunions at their historic first summit in 2000. More than 127,000 people in the South have since signed up for the reunions, but nearly a third of them have died due to old age.
About 16,000 people have been reunited through face-to-face reunions so far. Some 600,000 in the South are believed to have family in the North.
Seoul's latest dialogue proposals come in light of thawing bilateral ties following the North's shift to conciliatory diplomacy with the South and the United States.
The North has indicated it wants Seoul to reciprocate its "good will" as shown in agreeing to last month's family reunions by restarting rice and fertilizer aid and tour business to Mount Kumgang, which was shut down last year after a South Korean tourist was gunned down by a North Korean soldier, supposedly for trespassing a restricted military zone.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean and Japanese leaders at their joint summit on Saturday that North Korean leader Kim indicated he wants to improve relations with Seoul and Tokyo as well as Washington. Wen was in Pyongyang last week, meeting with Kim and other senior Pyongyang officials.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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