Red Cross societies from the divided Koreas will meet this month to discuss South Korean prisoners of war held in the North since the 1950-53 conflict, officials said Thursday, according to AP. Dozens of South Korean POWs from the Korean War have escaped, but at least 500 others are believed to be in captivity. Efforts to bring the soldiers home have made little progress because Pyongyang denies holding any. During high-level meetings between the Koreas in June, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to discuss the fate of missing POWs at Red Cross talks set to take place Aug. 23-25 at the North's Diamond Mountain tourist resort, said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Yang Jeong-hwa. The Korean War ended in a truce, not in a peace treaty. The border between the two Koreas is sealed with barbed-wire fences, mine fields and nearly 2 million troops on both sides.
