VZCZCXYZ0010
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUL #0007/01 0020426
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 020426Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7908
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 3661
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 8407
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 3795
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 2387

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 000007 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2017 
TAGS: PREL PROG KS KN
SUBJECT: DPRK VIEWS FAMILY REUNIONS AS QUID PRO QUO FOR AID 
 
Classified By: A/POL Brian McFeeters. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: While the recent increase in family reunions 
between separated North Korean and South Korean families 
suggests that such reunions are becoming normalized, it is 
likely that such reunions have reached a peak for the near 
future.  Choi Young-woon, the head of the Inter-Korean 
Cooperation Team for the South Korean Red Cross, expressed a 
pessimistic outlook on future family reunions, and explained 
some of the difficulties in finding participants for the 
North-South family reunions.  He also said that the DPRK 
viewed reunions at Mt. Kumgang between separated North and 
South Korean families as a bargaining chip to be used to gain 
humanitarian aid from the ROK in the form of rice and 
fertilizer.  With President-elect Lee Myung-bak likely to tie 
further humanitarian aid to progress in the Six Party Talks, 
the future of North-South family reunions remains uncertain. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------- 
Future Reunions 
--------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Choi stated that North Korea's Red Cross organization 
had agreed to 400 reunions per year once the new family 
reunion center at the Mt. Kumgang tourism site finished 
construction.  This would mean that such reunions would start 
around May 2008, when the center was expected to open.  Choi 
was pushing for 50 family reunions per month for the last 8 
months of 2008 in an attempt to regularize the meetings. 
Choi was pessimistic, however, about the chances of getting 
his DPRK counterparts to agree.  Two meetings of 200 families 
each were more likely. 
 
¶3. (C) Choi voiced his frustration about the DPRK's 
footdragging on family reunions.  The DPRK, Choi said, viewed 
the reunions as a political reward as opposed to a 
humanitarian issue, and would cooperate only for quid pro quo 
such as humanitarian aid.  Most of his North Korean Red Cross 
counterparts were temporarily assigned from the United Front 
Department or the military.  They did not, therefore, have a 
stake in pressing for more reunions, and not surprisingly, 
did the minimum amount of work required, Choi said. 
 
¶4. (C) The DPRK Red Cross's lack of motivation on the family 
reunions was most apparent in preparing for the reunions. 
The standard procedure was for 200 North Korean families and 
200 South Korean families to request information about the 
whereabouts of their relatives on the other side.  While the 
South Korean government would routinely find around 180 of 
the families requested by the DPRK for possible reunions, the 
DPRK would reply that it had only found around half (100-110) 
of the requested names.  This happened, Choi believed, 
because the DPRK knew that only 100 families from each side 
would be united (100 requests from the ROK, 100 from the 
DPRK, for a total of 200 total reunited families), and so 
would cease looking once it had reached the minimum mark 
required.  While the North Koreans cited difficulties in 
locating the family members as the major cause for this 
discrepancy, Choi believed that the lack of interest on the 
part of his North Korean counterparts was the real reason. 
When Choi queried North Korean defectors who had arrived 
recently in Seoul, the defectors replied that the DPRK would 
have no difficulty tracking down its citizens if it really 
desired to do so.  All that would be necessary would be a 
quick search through the residence registration system. 
 
-------------------- 
Why So Few Reunions? 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Choi said that many South Koreans with North Korean 
ties developed a defense mechanism of denying their North 
Korean ties during the 1950s-1970s, a mentality that 
persisted even today, Choi said.  During the 1950s, 1960s, 
and 1970s, a South Korean family could be ostracized for 
originally being from North Korea, or having relatives who 
had fled north during or after the Korean War.  This was the 
reason most South Koreans with relatives in the DPRK did not 
register for the waiting list for future family reunions. 
(NOTE: This could also explain why U.S. citizens of Korean 
ethnicity sought Congressional approval before holding family 
reunions with their North Korean relatives. END NOTE)  The 
number of registrants was only in the thousands, while Choi 
believed that the actual number with North Korean relatives 
might number in the tens, or even hundreds, of thousands.  In 
addition, many South Koreans with North Korean relatives 
believed that their most immediate North Korean relatives, 
such as siblings or parents, had likely passed away, leaving 
only tertiary relatives whom they had never met and had no 
interest in meeting. 
 
¶6. (C) For similar reasons, the vast majority of North 
Koreans requesting family reunions were not those seeking 
immediate family members.  Choi stated that a North Korean 
could not admit to having a close South Korean relative 
because the North Korean might then be placed in the "to be 
viewed with suspicion" lower-third class of North Korean 
society.  Distant relatives, on the other hand, were viewed 
as less likely to arouse suspicion. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶7. (C) The most recent family reunions at Mt. Kumgang were 
held on October 17-21, 2007, as a follow-on action to the 
October 3-5 North-South Summit.  Further meetings were held 
via videoconference on November 14-15, 2007.  The Family 
Reunion Center at Mt. Kumgang was officially declared open on 
December 7, 2007, though construction was scheduled to 
continue until May 2008.  While MOU had pressed for a 
Director General-level supervisor at the site, the DPRK had 
asked for a lower-level official to jointly head the site. 
Following the halt of aid shipments by the ROK after the 2006 
DPRK nuclear test, the DPRK had suspended family reunions. 
Now that such aid had resumed, the DPRK was allowing the 
family reunions to resume. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8. (C) Choi's pessimistic appraisal suggests that the past 
few months of family reunions were probably an all-time peak. 
 While President-elect Lee Myung-bak has expressed a desire 
to tie humanitarian aid more closely to North Korean 
deliverables such as further family reunions and explanations 
about South Korean POWs, this harder line toward the DPRK 
might have the effect of collapsing what humanitarian 
exchanges currently take place.  The ROKG's provision of 
humanitarian aid, particularly in food aid, has made the DPRK 
less dependent on international food aid from sources such as 
the World Food Programme, but an ROKG demand for greater 
reciprocity from the DPRK might make the DPRK rethink the 
attractiveness of international food aid. END COMMENT. 
VERSHBOW