Roundup: S.Korea, DPRK agree to hold higher-level talks for regular family reunion

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Tuesday on higher-level Red Cross talks to discuss ways of regularly holding the reunion of Korean families, separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Three delegates each from the two sides ended their working- level Red Cross contact at 10:10 a.m. Tuesday (0110 GMT) after kicking off at 10:50 a.m. Monday, reaching an agreement on the humanitarian event.

The first family reunion in more than one and a half years will be held at the gathering center in the scenic resort of Mount Kumgang, located in southeastern DPRK, from Oct. 20 to Oct. 26, South Korea's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said in a statement.

About 100 people each from the two Koreas would meet their long- lost relatives during the upcoming event, the first since February 2014 when the last family reunion was held in Mount Kumgang on a similar scale.

Almost half of about 130,000 South Koreans, who had applied for a reunion since 1988, passed away without a chance to meet their long-lost relatives.

The two Koreas also agreed to hold full-dress Red Cross talks at an early date to discuss the regularization of the reunion event and other issues of mutual concern.

During the working-level contact, the South Korean side asked to discuss a wide range of issues to regularly hold reunions, exchange the list of all separated families who are alive and allow the families to exchange letters and have video reunions.

Since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, the two Koreas has technically remained in a state of war and the exchange of letters and telephone calls have been banned.

"The North (DPRK) side claimed that in-depth discussions (about regular family reunions) should be made at full-dress Red Cross talks though it shared view on the need for fundamental solutions (to the separated family issue)," Lee Deok-haeng, South Korean chief delegate and executive committee member of the Korean Red Cross, told a press conference at the unification ministry's headquarters.

Lee said that there was no big difference during the contact over the size and venue of the reunion event, but he noted that South Korea called for the event to be held at an earliest date possible while the DPRK delayed the date due to internal affairs.

The South Korean side called for the humanitarian event to be held before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea on Oct. 10. The DPRK side claimed that it preferred a date after the founding ceremony.

The agreement came after more than 23 hours of marathon talks. It was unusually prolonged as the working-level Red Cross contact in February 2014 ended in about four hours.

The Red Cross talks for family reunion came after top military officials of the two Koreas agreed in late August to defuse tensions caused by the exchange of fire and landmine blast. The senior-level talks had also lasted for more than 40 hours.

The top-level military dialogue had agreed to hold the meeting for family reunion, while promising to hold inter-governmental talks in Seoul or Pyongyang to improve inter-Korean relations. Endi