Date agreed for Korean family reunions

South Korean officials have held a marathon five days of talks with their northern counterparts

SEOUL, South Korea -- Officials from North and South Korea have agreed a date for a new round of reunions for families divided since the end of the Korean War.

According to South Korean journalists covering the talks in the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, the six day long reunion will bring together 100 families from either side of the border beginning December 10.

The marathon five days of talks were intended to kick start the stalled process of family reunions and other exchanges between the two Koreas but became bogged down in a dispute over what Pyongyang refers to as a "warlike situation" in the South following the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

Since the attacks Seoul has put its entire armed forces on a heightened state of alert -- a move Pyongyang says is directed against the North.

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South Korea has insisted the alert is purely to defend against any possible terrorist threat to the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on its territory and is not a threat to its neighbor.

The December reunion will be held in the Mount Kumgang resort -- the first time such an event has been held outside of either Seoul or Pyongyang.

The reunion, the fourth since last summer, had originally been scheduled for mid-October.

During the talks the North Korean negotiating team insisted that the reunions could only take place after South Korea had taken its 650,000-member military and 130,000-member police off alert.

'Neutral expressions'

That dispute was resolved in talks overnight Monday although details of the final agreement have yet to be released.

Tens of thousands of Korean families have been divided for almost five decades

Reports from the talks venue said "neutral expressions" had been used in the wording of the agreement to reflect the views of both sides.

Under the new agreement the two Koreas have also agreed to reopen economic talks at a venue to be decided later.

The issue of Korea's divided families is one of the bitterest legacies of the Korean War, which ended in 1953.

Tens of thousands of people on either side of the border have not seen or heard from close relatives in almost 50 years.

The landmark Inter-Korean Summit of 2000 raised hopes that a thaw in relations could pave the way for increased reunions, but a series disputes has slowed progress.

As time moves on the issue is becoming increasingly pressing because most of the family members involved are very old.

According to the Associated Press over the past year more than 12,000 elderly South Koreans who had applied for reunions have died.