South, North exchange lists for family reunion

Liaison officials of the South and North Korean Red Cross societies met at the truce village of Panmunjom on August 8 and exchanged the lists of the 100 people from the South and North who will visit each other`s capital on August 15. Seoul announced the roster to the media soon afterwards.

Among the people included on the North Korean list are Ryu Yul, a scholar of Korean literature, Cho Ju-Kyung, a mathematician and professor of Kim Il-Sung University and Chung Chang-Mo, a noted painter. On the South Korean list was Chang Yi-Yoon, who will meet his 109-year-old mother in the North.

The North`s family reunion team will be headed by Ryu Mi-Yung, the wife of the late Choi Duk-Shin, who defected to the North in November 1989. The South Korean visitors will be led by Korea National Red Cross(KNRC) president Chang Choong-Shik. The two Koreas also exchanged lists of 50 other medical, support and media personnel that will accompany the reunion participants on their trips. The two sides also exchanged memoranda guaranteeing the safety of the visitors to each side. Meanwhile, government officials disclosed that the visiting North Koreans will meet their relatives as a group in the COEX building in Samsung-dong, Seoul, when they arrive on August 15. From August 16, the North Koreans will be allowed to meet their relatives separately at the Sheraton WalkerHill Hotel, where they will stay, and in the afternoon, they will be taken on a guided tour of the Secret Garden. The full details of their itinerary will be finalized through consultations with the North Korean side, the officials added.