The fifth round of video family reunions began Tuesday in nine cities around the nation and in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

A total of 40 separated families were reunited with their cross-border relatives via video on the first day. Sixty families from each side will see each other before the reunions end Thursday.

The reunion event began with remarks by Red Cross chiefs of the two Koreas.

North Korea’s Red Cross Central Committee Chairman Jang Jae-eon urged the two Koreas to enable separated families to live together as soon as possible.

South Korean Red Cross President Han Wan-sang called on the North to speed the construction of reunion centers.

Some two-hundred-80 families have been reunited with their long-lost kin via video since the first such reunions in August 2005. The current round is the first in 13 months.