Carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the statement also said video-linked reunions would occur in time for the anniversary of the Oct. 4 inter-Korean declaration signed in 2007 during a summit in Pyongyang between late leaders Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il.

The communist state also proposed holding working-level talks over the resumption of long-stalled tours to the North Korean mountain resort on Thursday.

To this proposal, Seoul said it would present its position later after internally deliberating on it.

Last week, Seoul’s Red Cross proposed a meeting with its North Korean counterpart this Friday at the Peace House on the South’s side of the truce village to “consult on humanitarian issues such as family reunions around the Chuseok.”

Family reunions have not been held since October 2010 as inter-Korean ties deteriorated due to a series of North Korean provocations including its artillery shelling of Yeonpyeongdo Island in November 2010 that killed two marines and two civilians.

Seoul has recently focused on the humanitarian aspect of the separated families issue as many of them have died of old age. Of the survivors, 9.3 percent were aged over 90, 40.5 percent were in their 80s, 30.6 percent in their 70s and 11.4 percent in their 60s.

According to the Unification Ministry, only 72,882 of the 128,842 South Koreans registered since 1988 remain alive as of July 31, meaning that some 2,000 have died each year.

The Mount Geumgang tours have been suspended since a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier there for allegedly trespassing into a restricted area in July 2008. Following the suspension of the tours to the mountain, tours to Gaeseong have also been stalled.

The North has repeatedly called for the resumption of the tours, but the South has maintained that tours will not resume until the North provides a clear explanation for the shooting and guarantees full-scale safety measures for tourists in the future.

The North is said to have raked in $1.5 million in 2006 and $2 million in 2007 through the Geumgang tour program. Under deepening international isolation stemming from its nuclear and missile program, Pyongyang has been in desperate need of outside financial sources.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)