North, South Korea reach deal on family reunions

Seoul, Mar 2: South and North Korea today reached a deal to resume reunions of families separated during the Korean war in a step at improving ties that were chilled by Pyongyang's weapons tests last year.

In their first high-level contact since the North stormed out of a meeting in July, Pyongyang agreed to resume reunions in early May for families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War, according to pool reports of the cabinet-level talks held in Pyongyang.

North Korea, angered at Seoul's decision to suspend food aid after Pyongyang defied international warnings and launched missiles in July 2006, cut off the reunions.

There was no report yet on whether the impoverished North, which had asked Seoul to restore food aid, would receive handouts of rice and fertiliser from the South.

The inter-Korean meeting comes on the heels of North Korea agreeing last month at separate, six-way nuclear talks to begin shutting down its nuclear arms programme in return for up to 1 million tonnes of fuel oil.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because the Korean War ended in a truce and not with a peace treaty.

Reuters>