An ethnic Korean daily in Japan says North Korea wants to hold reunions for all families separated during and after the Korean War.

In its Wednesday edition, the Chosun Shinbo, the newspaper of the pro-North Korea General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, referred to reunions of South Korean sailors who were abducted by the North in the 1960s and 80s.

The North's statement is its first on including people who were separated from their families after the war.

The daily also blamed South Korean media for hampering reunions by bringing attention to South Korean prisoners of war and abductees in the North.