Inter-Korean Red Cross Meeting broken off

Inter-Korean Red Cross working-level talks which were held from Oct. 31 to November 2 came to a rupture. As a result, the South Korean government`s plans to implement a further round of family reunion and start the construction of a permanent meeting place at Mt. Geumgang hit a snag.

The two Koreas reached agreement on regular reunions of family members separated by the Korean war and work to confirm whereabouts of family members who have not been found yet and some people missing during the Korean war at their 4th round of senior-level talks. However, this time the North showed a lukewarm attitude to the implementation of what they agreed on earlier.

The North rejected the South`s proposal to hold a family reunion around new year`s day next year, saying that it is very cold at Mt. Geumgang at that time and the Geumgang Inn, which was leased to Hyundai, is now under repair works.

In addition, as for the issue of those kidnapped to the North, it flatly said that the issue itself does not exist, casing a dark shadow on the possibility of debates over the issue.

However, the North showed a positive response to the construction of a permanent meeting place. It even presented a detailed plan on the construction including construction costs and took the South delegation to Jopo village, Onjeong-ri, Goseong-gun, Gangweon-do, a candidate for the meeting place. The North urged for the South` agreement, saying, "There is no better place than here. We already started to relocate the residents."

Against this backdrop, there are suspicions that the North does not have any interest in settling the family reunion issue but it has interest only in its using of the meeting place in a lot of ways.

In fact, the North delegation said, "Let us build a fairly good building for the family unions and we could make good use of the building in a lot of events such as ministerial meetings..."

For fear of the expected criticism that the South is giving everything to the North in return for nothing, the South delegation did not agree on the issue of construction of the a meeting place, in which the south is supposed to bear the construction costs.

However, South Korea` Red Cross itself says that there are some results from the talks. They say that Jopo village was decided as a strong candidate for the construction and the two sides decided to find out whereabouts of 100 separated family members each.

An official with Red Cross said, "We paved the way for tangible results at the next working-level contact. We plan to propose a meeting to the North in mid-December."

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com