The rival Koreas were expected to finish talks on Friday about resuming reunions of families torn apart by the Korean War, in a rare meeting as the isolated North reaches out to its foes after being hit by U.N. sanctions, Reuters reported.
In another move to defrost ties with a traditional adversary, North Korea sent a delegation to the United States last week to discuss resuming nongovernmental food aid to the impoverished communist state that battles chronic shortages, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted informed sources as saying.
Analysts said conciliatory moves made by the destitute North this month may be to bolster its coffers after U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test in May made it more difficult to trade arms, cutting into a key source of cash that estimates say could be worth about 6 percent of its $17 billion a year economy.
The two Koreas are near a deal to resume reunions in early October for about 100 families from both sides of the border that will be held at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea, which is run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group, officials said.
They have not yet reached an agreement for the exact dates of the highly emotionally meeting of families who left siblings, parents and relatives on the other side of the divided peninsula when the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire.
The South has also been pressing the North to account for more than 1,000 of its citizens who were either abducted by the communist state or were prisoners of the Korean War who were not allowed to return after the fighting ended.
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