By Seo Dong-shin & Joint Press Corps
Staff Reporter


MT. KUMGANG, North Korea _ Red Cross officials of South and North Korea yesterday opened three days of talks at Mt. Kumgang in the North, with such issues as South Korean abductees to the North and expansion of reunion meetings of separated families high on the agenda.

The South’s four-member delegation, led by Chang Suk-june, secretary-general of the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), met with three delegates, headed by Choe Song-ik, vice chairman of the North’s Red Cross Society, in a hotel at the scenic resort mountain.

In a keynote speech, the South presented three issues _ confirmation of life or death and whereabouts of South Korean prisoners of war and abductees during the Korean War (1950-1953), measures to expand video reunions of separated families, and fixation of reunion meetings for separated families on a regular basis as well as enabling their letter exchanges.

In response, the North put forward four issues _ confirmation of ``those who went missing’’ during the war period, construction of a family reunion center at Mt. Kumgang, video reunions, and confirmation of life or death and whereabouts of separated families as well as their letter exchanges.

``The two sides have a common understanding that `those whose life or death has become impossible to confirm around the war period’ include South Korean POWs and abductees to the North,’’ a South Korean official said. ``I think the two share the same opinion, to a considerable extent.’’

The Red Cross talks, the sixth of its kind since the first in June 2000, came after a break of one year and nine months this time.

The 15th round of inter-Korean Cabinet talks in June agreed to a discussion of ``humanitarian issues including those whose life or death has become impossible to confirm around the war period’’ during the Red Cross talks. Until now, the North has been flatly denying the existence of any abductees or POWs from the South, instead using vague expressions such as ``those who went missing during the war.’’

But hopes are high that the North might show an about-turn in its attitude this time, as demonstrated when the Northern delegates paid an unprecedented visit to the National Cemetery in the South Korean capital on the occasion of the joint celebrations of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day in Seoul.

Many interpreted the first-ever tribute from the North to the South Korean war dead as a gesture indicating the North’s determination to settle the fratricidal past.

Those prospects seemed to brighten as the North informed the South’s Red Cross of the fate of an abducted fisherman last week.

According to a Red Cross official in Seoul on Tuesday, the North confirmed that Park Doo-nam, believed to have been kidnapped by a North Korean patrol ship from his fishing boat in the early 1970s, was found dead.

Park is among some 500 South Koreans, mostly fishermen, who are believed to have been abducted by the North during the decades after the Korean War and have not returned home.

satlwall@koreatimes.co.kr