N.K. should show sincerity in family reunions

Through marathon talks that lasted for two days, the two Koreas have agreed to hold an event for reunions of separated families at Mount Kumgang in North Korea from October 20 to October 26. As the two sides generated an outcome at their first working-level talks that followed the "August 25 high-level agreement," chances are now high that a meeting of authorities from the two Koreas, which will widely address pending inter-Korean issues, will also take place. Reunions of separated families that will happen for the first time in 20 months is truly a good piece of news to families who remain separated between the South and the North for decades. Another issue of concern is whether the North will sincerely implement a process to confirm whether 50 South Korean prisoners of war and South Koreans kidnapped by the North are still alive or not, which Seoul requested.

Agreement between the two Koreas is welcome news, but this is still a far cry from a fundamental solution to the issue of separated families. The South Korean delegation proposed exchange of lists to check survival and addresses of separated families, regularization of reunion events, and exchange of letters, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement as the North only insisted on reunions on the occasion of the Chuseok holiday.

About half of families who sought unions with their families in the North have already passed away. Of 65,907 survivors, 54.1 percent are aged 80 years or older. In July alone, 515 separated families in the South died without having a chance to meet their loved ones in the North. Nobody knows if and when they will be able to meet their separated families through an event, in which only 200 people from both the Koreas meet with each other.

The fact the reunions of separated families have been scheduled around October 20 is another cause of concern. The South Korean government demanded the North to hold the reunion event before October 10, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers` Party, but Pyongyang insisted on holding the event after that day. There is a chance that the reunion event itself may collapse, if the North conducts a provocative act such as launch of a long-range missile around the day of the party’s founding. “We have to create the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers` Party as a revolutionary occasion for celebration,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year’s address. “All the military troops and people should sprint forward towards the venue of a Grand Festival in October.” The North is not in the kind of mood to mark the 70th anniversary only through a domestic celebrative event. The North conducted its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

North Korea said at the working-level contact commenced on Monday, “If an incident of unknown cause occurs again or an armed conflict breaks out as a result on the Chosun (Korean) Peninsula, the U.S. will be held sternly responsible,” in demanding the U.S. to pull out its troops from the South. Withdrawal of the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea is an act of instigation that Pyongyang has always been taking, but it is hardly predictable at this point what irrational act it will seek to stage ahead of October 10. Depending on how much the North refrains from acts of provocation and instead exerts sincere efforts to hold reunions of separated families, the South will come to verify the sincerity of Pyongyang in holding inter-Korean dialogue.