South Korea called on North Korea on Thursday to make efforts to resume the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean war as the North blamed the South for soured inter-Korean ties.
  

Earlier in the day, the North rebuked President Park Geun-hye for calling on Pyongyang to be sincere in holding the reunion of the separated families, saying that she "politicized" the humanitarian issue.
  

South Korea is claiming that it would "try to do something to substantially settle the issue of reunion, but it has blocked the way for all contacts and visits between the two Koreas," said a spokesman at the Central Committee of North Korea's Red Cross Society.
  

The spokesman said that the South is making an "unpardonable politically-motivated provocation" against the North.
  

More than 68,000 South Koreans have been separated without being able to meet their family members and relatives in the North since the conflict ended at a truce, not a peace treaty. The reunions of the families were last held in February last year amid lingering tension between the two Koreas.
  

An official at the Ministry of Unification said that the North should positively respond to the South's call for resuming the reunions of the separated families as the issue should be dealt with from a humanitarian perspective.
  

"The government believes that resolving this pressing issue should be a priority," the official said, asking not to be named. "Seoul will continue its efforts for having discussions with Pyongyang on the issue for making the family reunions possible on a regular basis." (Yonhap)