The nation is awaiting North Korea’s decision regarding a meeting proposal South Korea extended to the North last week for talks between the Red Cross societies of the two sides.

The South proposed the Red Cross societies hold talks at the North’s Geumgang Mountain for three days starting Wednesday to discuss inter-Korean family reunions, but the North has yet to respond.

A Unification Ministry official in Seoul says if Pyongyang accepts the proposal for talks by Tuesday morning, the Wednesday talks would be technically possible.

Meanwhile, the inter-Korean hotline at the border village of Panmunjeom that had been reopened by the North to facilitate a North Korean delegation’s visit to the South to attend former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunday funeral is no longer operational following the delegation’s departure from Seoul.