Domestic civic groups are urging the government to engage in direct talks with Pyongyang to resolve the lingering issue of South Koreans abducted to the Stalinist North.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, the Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees and other groups said that the abductee issue should be separated from that of inter-Korean family reunions.

The groups also expressed full support for the actions of South Korean journalists who had been covering the ongoing reunions, and called on Pyongyang to offer an official apology, punish the parties responsible and devise measures to prevent similar disputes in the future.

The South's pool reporters withdrew from its coverage of the reunions in protest of restrictions imposed on their reporting by North Korean officials.

The civic groups also urged the Seoul government to completely suspend its aid to the North unless Pyongyang stops what it called "senseless behavior."