Koreans resume family reunions

Emotions were said to be high as families reunited for the first time

Video reunions for families that were split by the division of the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s have been held for the first time in 13 months.

Three days of link-ups between the North Korean capital Pyongyang and nine major cities in the South are being provided for some 60 families.

The reunions were stopped by the North when the South suspended aid following North Korea's missile tests last year.

In a sign of improved relations, the South has resumed fertiliser shipments.

A cargo ship left for North Korea on Tuesday afternoon, carrying 6,500 tonnes of composite fertiliser, the unification ministry said.

Reunion centre plan

There were emotional scenes as long-lost relatives were able to see and speak to each other for the first time via video link-up, witnesses said.

An 102-year-old South Korean man, Choe Byeong-ok, was taken to a studio in Suwon, south of Seoul, to be linked up with his 72-year-old son in the North.

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They were said to have wept and laughed as they exchanged family photos and asked after missing relatives.

"Don't feel sad," Choe Byeong-ok said, according to a Red Cross official who witnessed the scene.

"Let's lead the rest of our life in joy and become reunited after reunification."

Thousands of families were divided when the Korean Peninsula was split into two countries at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Since a breakthrough inter-Korean summit in 2000, more than 13,000 people have taken part in the reunion meetings.

The two Koreas are also working on a centre for holding face-to-face reunions at the North's Mt Kumgang holiday resort.

Bank dispute

Inter-Korean dialogue on the issue of reunions and aid came to an abrupt halt last year after the North carried out a missile test in July and then a nuclear test in October.

They picked up again after Pyongyang agreed in February - at talks involving China, the US, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia - to "shut down and seal" its only operational nuclear reactor in return for energy aid.

Christopher Hill expressed optimism over the bank row

While Seoul has agreed to resume fertiliser shipments, it is holding off on deliveries of rice aid until the North has met a deadline in mid-April to shut down its Yongbyon reactor.

Six-party talks last week aimed at assessing the progress towards the deadline ended abruptly in a dispute over the transfer of funds from a Macau bank.

Before the talks had started, the US announced it had ended its investigation into the Macau bank - effectively lifting a freeze on some $25m of North Korea's assets.

As the talks got under way, the funds were reported to be being transferred from Macau to a bank in Beijing, from where North Korea could access the money.

When the funds had not appeared in the account by the fourth day of talks, the North's envoys went home.

US Treasury officials and North Korean diplomats met in Beijing this week to try to resolve the issue.

Washington's chief North Korean nuclear envoy, Christopher Hill, said he hoped the dispute would be resolved by the end of the week.