South Korea will increase financial aid for separated families holding privately arranged reunions in third countries with long-lost relatives from North Korea, the unification ministry said Monday.

The plan comes as government-arranged reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War have been suspended for years due to the chill in relations between the two Koreas, while an increasing number of separated family members are dying of old age.

Some families have sought to hire private agencies to set up reunions with their loved ones from the North in third countries like China in recent years. Last year, a total of 28 such private reunions took place, according to the ministry.

Announcing a three-year plan to facilitate exchanges for separated families, the ministry said it will increase financial assistance to 2 million won ($1,759) for citizens who try to find their parents, children or siblings in the North through non-governmental agencies, an increase from the current 1 million won.

Up to 5 million won will be given, compared with the current 3 million won, to families who use private organizations to set up reunions with their family members from the North, according to the ministry.

Seoul will also conduct a far-reaching survey of separated families here in order to better help them meet with their relatives in the North, the ministry said.

It also said the government will try to revive government-arranged reunions by restoring dialogue between the two Koreas as well as between their Red Cross societies, it said.

It will also push for holding reunions on a regular basis and building another reunion center besides the one set up in 2008 in a North Korean border village, the ministry said.

“Regardless of (the status of) South-North relations, the ministry will start to seek internal measures due to the urgency of the reunion issue,” the ministry said, referring to the aging of separated family members.

Seoul proposed a round of reunions with the North in February, but no response has been given so far, the ministry said.

About 81,800 South Koreans are registered with the government as separated families and the majority of them are between the ages of 70 and 89.

The divided Koreas have held more than a dozen rounds of reunions since a landmark summit in 2000, bringing together more than 21,700 family members who had not seen each other since the war.

South Korea wants to resume regular reunions but none have taken place since October 2010. (Yonhap News)