Inter-Korean RC talks held at Mt. Geumgang

South and North Korea held the second round of the inter-Korean Red Cross talks at the Mt. Geumgang Hotel in North Korea, exchanging views on additional family reunions, the establishment of meeting places for separated kin and the confirmation of the whereabouts of displaced family members. In a keynote speech, South Korean chief delegate Park Ki-Ryun proposed that the agreed upon two rounds of family reunions be staged in the middle of October and mid-November and the period of the participants' stay shortened to three days and two nights from the four days and three nights of the first round. He also proposed reducing the tours for family members so they can spend nights with their long-separated relatives.

Noting that the eyes of the world are now focused on the Sydney Olympics but the eyes of all Koreans are concentrated on the progress of the Red Cross talks, Park said that it is urgent to determine whether long-lost family members are alive or not. On the other hand, his North Korean counterpart, Choe Sung-Chol, expressed hope that the ongoing talks would pave the way for the two Koreas to bring about many accomplishments for the Korean people and their posterity.

The Southern side also put forward the position that the effort to confirm the whereabouts of displaced family members should be finished within the year and that the family members who were involved in the previous reunions should be permitted to exchange letters from October. To this end, the South handed over a list of 95,000 persons who had applied for reunions and asked the North to determine the status of their relatives, adding that if they were found to be deceased, the North should inform the South of the dates of their death.