AlQa'dah 15, 1434, Sep 21, 2013, SPA -- North Korea said on Saturday it was postponing planned reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, dpa cited South Korea's Yonhap news agency as reporting. North and South Korea had agreed to carry out on September 25-30 the first such reunions in three years under an agreement reached last month. The North said in a statement that it was postponing the event until "a normal atmosphere can be created" for further negotiations, Yonhap reported. On Monday, the two countries swapped lists of about 100 families from each side. A team of South Korean Red Cross officials entered North Korea Friday to prepare for the reunions. About 20,000 people from both Koreas have taken part in 18 reunion events and seven teleconferences between 1985 and 2010, TV Chosun reported. The planned family reunions had indicated a further easing of ties between the two Koreas, after the reopening of a jointly run industrial park in North Korea Monday, which ended a five-month closure.
