North Korea exchanges list with South Korea ahead of family reunions

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- North and South Korean Red Cross officials exchanged lists of family members at the truce village of Panmunjom, signs that reunions are moving forward despite provocative announcements from North Korea regarding nuclear and rocket-launch activities.

South Korea's list included 200 family members identified as civilians and 50 people whose family members were taken captive as prisoners of war, Yonhap reported on Tuesday.

The list includes their names, age and address, and the relation to family members in North Korea, but the roster is representative of only a small fraction of separated families. Seoul's Unification Ministry database includes 66,292 separated family members, and about 82 percent of that pool, or 54,123 people, are age 70 or older.

North Korea's list included names of 200 relatives in South Korea, but the addresses of the people listed dated back to the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean Red Cross. If the South Korean families were not in Seoul's database, the police and local municipalities would need to undertake investigations, a Red Cross official said.

"As long as family members are alive, they shouldn't be hard to find, given the database with the government is comprehensive and well updated," said a Red Cross official, according to Yonhap.

The family reunion is expected to take place Oct. 20-26 in North Korea, and is the first reunion to be held since February 2014.

Seoul said in statement 500 South Korean family members were initially selected, but due to health reasons and deaths 250 members were initially confirmed. The Unification Ministry said a final list would be assembled by Oct. 8.