SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will hold Red Cross talks on family reunions next week in a ROK border town, the Seoul government said Friday.

The Ministry of Unification said that the DPRK's Red Cross notified its ROK counterparts of its plan to send delegates to the border town of Munsan for talks.

The two sides had agreed to hold talks but had not settled on a talks venue.

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It will mark the first time that a DPRK delegation passes through the heavily armed inter-Korean border to travel to the ROK in more than a year, after DPRK officials visited Seoul in August 2009 to attend the funeral of former ROK President Kim Dae-jung.

In next week's talks, the two sides are scheduled to discuss ways to regularize the reunions of families separated by the 1950- 53 Korean War, according to the ministry.

The DPRK on Thursday proposed holding talks about the tours to Mount Kumgang, including its confiscation of Seoul's assets, on the sidelines of a planned meeting on Thursday next week about family reunions, the ministry said.

The DPRK also suggested the ROK to send related officials to the meeting, to discuss resuming the ROK tours to Mount Kumgang.  

But Seoul rejected to link the humanitarian family reunion program, organized by the Red Cross and held at Mount Kumgang, to the commercial tourism project.

Seoul suspended ROK tours to Mount Kumgang in July 2008 after a female tourist was shot dead by a DPRK soldier while she was wandering into a controlled military zone. In response, the DPRK seized or sealed off the ROK assets at Mount Kumgang resort in April.

The reunion program of separated families began in 2000 after a historic inter-Korean summit between the two sides. The last reunions, or the second since the ROK President Lee Myung-bak took office, were held during the period from October 30 to November 5.  

About 600,000 ROK citizens are believed to have relatives in the DPRK. Ordinary citizens were not allowed to make phone calls, send letters or exchange e-mails across the border.

According to Seoul's government, more than 80,000 citizens are waiting for a chance to be reunited with their family members left in the DPRK, but the official figure does not take into account those who may have given up on their search or the 40,000 applicants who have passed away.