The head of the South Korean delegation at high-level talks with the North Wednesday said his priority was to ensure that family reunions planned for later this month would take place, local media reported.
Kim Kyou Hyun, the chief of the secretariat of the National Security Council, spoke ahead of the meeting with his counterpart, Won Dong Yon, deputy head of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers’ Party that is responsible for inter-Korean relations.
The talks in the border village of Panmunjom are the highest-level discussions in seven years, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
North Korea proposed a dialogue on general inter-Korean issues on Saturday but did not specify the issues to be discussed.
The Koreas last week agreed to allow reunions of families separated by the Korean War of 1950-53, an agreement that came amid a series of conciliatory gestures by Pyongyang.
The reunions are scheduled to take place at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea during February 20-25.
Tensions have been higher on the Korean peninsular since Pyongyang conducted a third atomic weapons test exactly a year ago.
