Rival parties have expressed hope that Monday’s working-level meeting between Red Cross officials of South and North Korea will lead to reunions of separated families for the first time in 19 months. 
 
Ruling Saenuri Party’s Spokesman Lee Jang-woo told reporters that the party hopes the North will show sincerity during the talks and that the South Korean government will exert its best efforts to meet the expectations and aspirations of the people.
 
Lee said Saenuri hopes that reunions of separated families will be held upon the Chuseok holiday which will run from September 26 to 29, stressing that his party would spare no efforts for the matter to be addressed.
 
Senior spokesman for the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), Kim Yung-rok, issued a statement calling on officials of the two Koreas to sincerely engage in the working-level talks in order to seize the opportunity to hold inter-Korean dialogue and family reunions.
 
Meanwhile, NPAD Chairman Moon Jae-in said during a meeting of the party’s Supreme Council that recent disclosures via the media of a decapitation strike plan as well as Seoul and Washington’s Operations Plan (OPLAN) 5015 were extremely inappropriate and went against the government’s determination to change ties with the North through dialogue.
 
He also said such disclosures demonstrated a serious collapse in discipline in the South Korean military.
 
Moon called for an investigation into the matter and for those responsible to face punishment.