North and South Korean Families Reunited, Leaders Question Post-War Legislation that Keeps Kin Separate

North Korean and South Korean families that were divided by the Korean War in the 1950s will be allowed to reunify, Seoul officials told the BBC.

For the first time in three years, 100 people from each area of Korea will meet up September 25-30 at the North's Mount Kumgang resort.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Kim Hyung-Suk told BBC that this move will "set the stage" for families who were separated after the war to meet on a regular basis.

From 1950-53, the two areas were locked in bitter battle that resulted in an armistice. Because no peace deal was reached, Seoul and Pyongyang are still technically at war.

But last week, the two entities decided to reinstate the use of a shared region. Korean Red Cross officials discussed reopening the industrial area when they met at border village Panmunjom, the BBC reported.

Respective leaders of the two countries are softening on the laws that require separated family members to stay in their regions. South Korean President Park Geun-hye stated that it was necessary to keep these reunions regular, insisting that North Korea "open its heart."

In South Korea alone, upwards of 70,000 citizens have applied to participate in family reunions, but names are picked from a lottery, leaving some next-of-kin high and dry.

Kim Kyung-ryun reported she's been trying for 10 years to meet up with her mother, father and siblings in the North.

"So many reunions have passed, and I've never been picked, so I wonder whether my chance will ever come," she said.

For September's organized family reunions, video calls will be made available for 40 families from the North and South who cannot travel to the resort in Kumgang.

The reopened conversation of familial reunification marks a noted sign that things are calming down in the region, after menacing rhetoric and threats plagued the peninsula earlier this year.

In April, North Korea took workers out of the Kaesong shared industrial area, after the UN expanded its sanctions on Pyongyang.