Reunions of separated families impossible with Park Geun-hye in office: DPRK

The Red Cross Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday warned of no more humanitarian exchange between the two Koreas including reunions of separated families, as long as South Korean President Park Geun-hye is in office.

Park is entirely to blame for the failure to carry out inter-Korean humanitarian exchange including reunions of separated families split by the 1950-53 Korean War, said a statement issued by the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society.

The statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency, said thaty the DPRK "made a reasonable proposal for fundamentally solving the issue of reunions of separated families and relatives at the December north-south authorities talks," but Seoul rejected the proposal.

In the statement, the DPRK blamed the Park administration for pushing the north-south relations to "a total collapse" and "escalating confrontation."

In August 2015, Pyongyang and Seoul reached a six-point agreement through two rounds of marathon talks in the wake of a military standoff at the land border. The agreement included reunions of separated families on the occasion of Mid-Autumn day.

Later in October, thousands of families divided by the Korean War gathered at Mount Kumgang to reunite with their relatives and families, most of whom had no or few contact since the war.

This was the 20th meeting for the divided families from the two Koreas since reunions started in 1988. Endi