Construction of the Dispersed Families’ Meeting Place to Hold about 1,000 People

The 6th Meeting of the Dispersed Families Event will be held from February 20th through 25th at the Gumgang Mountain. Moreover, the Gumgang Mountain’s Permanent Establishment Meeting Room for the dispersed families will start the construction work in coming April and will be completed next year’s April.

The representative of South and North have agreed to the above at the 3rd practical affairs contact of the Red Cross Conference held at the Gumgang Mountain on 22nd. According to the agreement, the meeting place for the dispersed families will be built at Jopo village, Onjung-ri, Gosung-gun, Gangwon Province as a comprehensive building which will be able to accommodate about 1,000 people but the detailed scale will be decided upon discussion after the both parties’ construction experts jointly design the structure. The conditions are as follow: South will provide the necessary machines and materials for the work and North will provide the site and the labor.

Both parties plan to form a Construction Promotion Committee of the Gumgan Mountain’s Meeting Place in order to agree on the practical problems in relation to the construction of the meeting place. They’ve also agreed to decide on the management matters such as the number of the dispersed families’ meetings and its scale at the latest of one month prior to the completion of the structure.

The topics about the missing people due to the Korean War, the existence of the dispersed families including the addresses, exchange of letters, and many more, have been postponed to be discussed after the 6th Meeting of the Dispersed Families and the starting of the meeting structure construction. South and North have agreed to have the 4th practical affairs contact of the Red Cross Conference at the end of April, which is after the starting of the new government.

The Republic of Korea National Red Cross has clarified that they will hold the Selection Committee meeting in the morning of 23rd to decide on the selection criterion for the candidates of the 6th Meeting of the Dispersed Families Event. The Republic of Korea National Red Cross will also hold a computer drawing among the 300 standby applicants on the same day.

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com