153 separated kin confirmed alive in N.K.

The status of 375 separated family members of South Koreans living in North Korea was confirmed for the first time Tuesday along with their addresses.

The Korea National Red Cross (KNRC) made public the report by the North Korean Red Cross Society on whether persons on list are dead or alive and produced addresses as part of the result of its investigation on the separated families and is now informing their families in the South.

In particular, 67 people were confirmed to be alive in the North among the separated families whose South Korean families asked the Red Cross to confirm their fate and addresses Sept. 30 last year.

So these South Korean families will be able to exchange letters with their separated kin they have been yearning to see for a long time on March 15 officially for the first time since the national division in 1945.

But the relatives of 19 South Koreans turned out to be dead, and the fates of those of 14 others were unable to be confirmed, raising the necessity for an early solution of the separated family problems following their aging.

The North Korean Red Cross Society¡¯s report was delivered to the KNRC during the third inter-Korean Red Cross talks being held at Mt. Kumgang Hotel in Kosong-gun, Kangwon Province, North Korea.

According to the report, of the 506 people whose life or death South Korean side asked the North to confirm, 153 were found alive, 222 were dead and the fate of 129 could not confirmed.