North and South Korea agreed yesterday to bring together more families torn apart by their war 50 years ago as new talks put the faltering peace process back on track.
The two Koreas announced new family reunions and further talks next month in a joint statement after their first high-level negotiations since December.
They also agreed to revive other reconciliation initiatives, begun after an historic summit between their leaders last year, which foundered after the communist North froze contacts in March.
The North pledged to make a new attempt to reconnect a railway and road link through the De-Militarised Zone (DMZ) border and the two agreed to step up sports exchanges and start an anti-flood scheme around the border. Relatives divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War will be allowed to meet in Seoul and Pyongyang from October 16th to 18th, said the statement.
It did not say how many people would take part, but the South Korean news agency Yonhap put the number at around 100 on each side. The next round of ministerial talks will be held in Pyongyang for four days from October 28th, the statement added.
"Through the talks, the two Koreas showed their determination to put their rapprochement back on track," Mr Rhee Bong-Jo, a director of the South's Unification Ministry said at the end of the four-day ministerial talks in Seoul.
The Unification Minister, Mr Hong Soon-Young, said in Seoul: "I'm convinced the crucial accords will nourish co-prosperity and trust between South and North Korea." The Korean Central News Agency said the talks were "instilling hope and confidence". Three rounds of family reunions since the Pyongyang summit last year involved just 600 people. But millions of mainly elderly people are still without news of kin on the other side of the DMZ.