The 6th round of the inter-Korean Red Cross talks ended without agreement on determining the fate and whereabouts of South Korean prisoners of war and abductees.

The three-day meeting collapsed after North Korea rejected the South's proposal to launch efforts to identify all South Koreans taken prisoner and abducted during and after the Korean War. The North insisted on limiting the scope to those lost during the war.

Pyongyang also wants to allow any POWs and abductees to be reunited with their Southern relatives as part of regular family reunions as in the past, whereas Seoul wants a separate agreement to clarify their fate and whereabouts.

North Korea denies holding any South Korean POWs or abductees, but Seoul believes about five-hundred POWs and four-hundred-eighty abductees are estimated to be alive in the North.

However, the two sides agreed on holding another round of face-to-face family reunions and two or three video reunions within this year. They also agreed in principle to allow separated families who have already been reunited once with their relatives through past family reunion programs to exchange letters.