North Korea moves to reunite families separated by war

NORTH Korea has offered South Korea a new round of reunions for families separated by the Korean War.

Reunions last happened in September and October 2009, and their potential renewal could signal an easing of tensions after the provocative sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

The North proposed that the two Koreas' Red Cross societies meet soon to discuss the gatherings. It proposed the reunions take place at the North's scenic Diamond Mountain at the Chuseok autumn harvest holiday on 22 September.

North Korea's Red Cross chief Jang Jae On expressed hope that "humanitarian cooperation between the North and the South would get brisk with the reunion of separated families and their relatives". South Korea's Red Cross said it would consider the North's proposal and consult with the government.

The two sides last held Red Cross-brokered reunions in late September last year. So far, more than 20,800 separated families have been reunited through brief, face-to-face meetings or by video, following a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000. Millions of families were separated by the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a ceasefire, leaving the two countries technically at war.