North and South Korea launch talks on family reunions

A mother and daughter look at North Korea from South Korea. — (Image credit: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

North and South Korea on Monday started talks on resuming the reunions of families separated by the Korean War in the early 1950s.

The talks, which are being held in a border village between representatives of the rival nations' Red Cross organizations, were made possible under a deal to avert war after an exchange of cross-border fire last month. About 22,500 Koreans have participated in brief, highly emotional reunions, but none have taken place since early last year.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.