Koreas resume Red Cross talks on POWs

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Officials from North and South Korea's Red Cross societies resumed talks Tuesday on resolving the issue of South Korean prisoners of war and civilian abductees believed held in the communist country. The sensitive issue has been one of the main sticking points between the two countries as they have edged toward reconciliation since a landmark summit in 2000. South Korea estimates that 545 soldiers from the 1950-53 Korean War are still alive in North Korea, in addition to more than 480 South Korean civilians - mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end. North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies holding any POWs.