Red Cross officials from the two rival Koreas met Friday to discuss staging more reunions for families separated by war, amid mixed signals from the North that have included conciliatory gestures and harsh rhetoric in recent days.
The two Koreas held family reunions last month. They were the first in nearly two years after the North cut them off in protest of a hard-line policy toward the North by conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. He linked aid to impoverished North Korea to the country's nuclear disarmament.
Friday's meeting began in the North Korean border town of Kaesong where Seoul planned to propose that the two sides "hold more frequent family reunions," South Korea's Red Cross spokeswoman Song Soon-hwa said.
The one-day meeting followed mixed signals from the reclusive North to the outside world. North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missile tests on Monday, followed by a rare apology to the South on Wednesday for releasing a torrent of water from a dam that caused a deadly flood in South Korea.
