Reports from Korea suggest talks between the North and South about families separated by the war 50 years ago will also include discussions on the nuclear stand-off between the North and the United States.
The working-level talks will be held in the North's Mount Kumgang over three days, beginning January 20th.
The agenda will include arrangements for a new round of family reunions, the location of long-lost relatives and discussions on the building of a permanent reunion centre, A Red Cross statement said.
The United States is against offering any concessions to entice North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programme but US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Mr John Bolton said Washington is open to disussion.
Reports today, however, say the South has US backing to seek a solution to the impasse.
The US government ended oil shipments to North Korea last year after it discovered North Korea violated a 1994 agreement which froze plutonium-based nuclear arms programme in the country.
Pyongyang responded last month by reactivating the Yongbyon plutonium producing nuclear complex, which had been kept under UN observation since the 1994 deal.
AFP &