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North Korea threatens to end reunions

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November 4, 2000 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea threatened on Friday to suspend planned reunions of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War, accusing the South Korean Red Cross chief of defaming the isolated communist country.

The threat came after the reunions had already been postponed at the request of North Korea, which cited "internal reasons."

Friday's threat and the earlier delay raised concern that North Korea may be trying again to stall reunions of thousands of separated families, a key agreement of the historic June summit between leaders of the two Koreas.

In a statement released through its official Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's Red Cross accused Chang Choong-shik, president of its South Korean counterpart, of slandering the communist state during an interview with Seoul's conservative monthly Chosun.

Chosun's October edition quoted Chang as saying that family reunions will let people from both Koreas compare their political systems.

North Korea's Red Cross called Chang's remarks an "intolerable challenge and mockery of the (North)."

It said it found it hard to implement family reunions as long as Chang stayed in office.

"The North side will have to examine the immediate exchange of visiting groups of separated families and relatives and the future inter-Korean Red Cross talks," it said.

South Korean officials did not immediately comment on the North Korean reactions.

Chang led a delegation of 100 separated family members to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for four-day family reunions in August. An equal number traveled to Seoul for similar reunions.

According to the magazine, Chang said facilities in Pyongyang were decrepit and that North Koreans who showed up for the reunions in August all wore the same clothes.

While their South Korean relatives changed their clothes every day, the Northerners wore the same clothes for the four-day reunions, Chang was quoted as saying.

Without offering an explanation, North Korea last week suggested that a second round of reunions -- involving 100 people from each Korea -- be postponed for one month to be held Nov. 30-Dec. 2. South Korea agreed.

The two Koreas have grown worlds apart since their war. North Korea now depends on foreign aid to help feed its hunger-stricken people after inefficient management and disastrous weather devastated its farm industry. The capitalist South is an Asian economic dynamo.

Reuniting the tens of thousands of Koreans separated by the Korean War is an emotional issue in South Korea.