53 Korean War. Between 2000 and July 2004 nearly 10,000 people from both sides met family members living across the border. The meetings ended when North Korea broke off talks with Seoul in anger over its airlift of North Koreans refugees in Vietnam to South Korea. Chung said Kim accepted as "an exciting idea" his proposal to hold such reunions over the Web and agreed to pursue it for launch on Aug. 15 South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun welcomed the meeting and said its length -- five hours -- showed Kim's "good intent." Last week, Roh met U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington and the two renewed their commitment to resolve the nuclear crisis through diplomacy. But a senior U.S. official told the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors on Thursday that Washington would examine other options if Pyongyang failed to return to the negotiating table. He did not specify what options Washington would be prepared to consider. Pyongyang expelled all IAEA inspectors in 2002 and later withdrew from the NPT, the first state to pull out of the global pact against the spread of nuclear arms. --SP 0008 Local Time 2108 GMT
