SEOUL Jan. 16 Kyodo North and sou...

SEOUL Jan. 16 Kyodo

North and southward Korean Red Cross officials will clinch talks Monday at the North's Mt Kumgang to discuss arranging additional reunions of separated relatives, toward the south Korea's Red Cross group said Thursday.

During the three-day talks, the sum of two units sides are also expected to take up the issue of establishing a permanent center at Mt Kumgang, at which separated family members will detain temporary reunions.

The R Cros talks are to be held amid mounting tensions upon the Korean Peninsula arising from North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The sessions will be overlapped by the agency of the ninth four-day cabinet-level talks beginning nearest Tuesday in Seoul.

North and southern Korea held five rounds of exchange visits of relatives separated into the North and toward the south by the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The inter-Korean reunions of separated relatives were a major part of a put of agreements reached in June 2000 during the historic inter-Korean summit between President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang.

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