The ninth inter-Korean Red Cross talks will open at North Korea's Mount Geumgang resort on Wednesday.

During the three-day talks, the first in seven months, the two Koreas will discuss expanding reunions for separated families and resolving the issue of South Korean abductees and prisoners of war in North Korea.

They will also discuss details on the exchange of video messages between separated families, which will launch early next year.

Attention is focused on whether the two sides will make progress in the abductee issue on which Seoul and Pyongyang failed to narrow differences in the October summit.

Led by Korean National Red Cross Secretary General Jang Seok-joon, the South Korean delegation will leave Wednesday for the mountain resort on the North's east coast.