North and South Korea agreed to hold more reunions of families split across their heavily armed border later this year, as their Red Cross talks entered into an unscheduled fourth day Friday. The two sides were drafting a joint statement centering on the agreement to hold one more round of face-to-face reunions and two more rounds by video link by the end of the year, said pool reports from the North's Diamond Mountain resort, the talks' venue, according to AP. They also agreed to exchange video messages on CDs on a trial basis between 20 separated families who had already met their relatives in previous reunions, the reports said. The two sides plan to conclude the talks with the joint statement later Friday, the reports said. The outcome, if finalized, would fall short of South Korea's expectations. Entering into this week's talks Tuesday, the South had hoped to persuade the North to agree to hold family reunions more often on a regular basis _ face-to-face reunions once every two months, and by video link every month. Currently, the two Koreas hold family reunions about three times a year, although the program is often suspended due mainly to political tensions over the North's missile and nuclear arms programs. South Korea wants to regularize the event in an effort to establish a program immune from political tensions. Family reunions are one of the tangible fruits of inter-Korean reconciliation that began in 2000 with the first and only summit of the two Koreas' leaders. So far, 14 rounds of reunions have been held, allowing more than 14,500 Koreans to see their long-lost relatives for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War. The next reunions are set for next month at Diamond Mountain. The South has also pressed the North this week to agree to hold a family union only for former South Korean soldiers and civilians believed held in the North. But the North was firm on its stand that there were no South Korean prisoners of war and civilian abductees held in the country. Seoul estimates that 545 soldiers from the Korean War are still alive in the North, along with more than 480 civilians _ mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end. North Korea insists the civilians defected voluntarily to the North and denies holding any POWs. This week's talks came after the two Koreas resumed their reconciliation process buoyed by the North's February pledge to take initial steps to dismantle its nuclear program. Their ties had chilled since Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles and a nuclear device last year. The two countries remain technically at war since the Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. -- SPA
