The Unification Ministry will conduct a full-fledged survey from Monday to determine whether or not members of families separated by the Korean War are alive. 

A ministry official said Sunday that the survey will be carried out until August tenth in a bid to be prepared for consultations with North Korea on confirming whether members of such families are dead or alive. 

However, it remains unclear whether such confirmations will actually come about. 

The South has requested the North fully verify the whereabouts of separated family members in previous Red Cross talks, but the North had been passive on the matter. 

According to a survey conducted by the Unification Ministry in 2016, three quarters of separated families were unable to determine whether their long-lost kin in the North were alive or not.