South Korea held a National Security Council session to discuss follow-up measures on a recent inter-Korean deal that defused military tension and paved the way for reconciliation projects, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday.

Participants discussed on how to proceed with the planned reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War, presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters, without elaborating.

The comments came two days after the two Koreas agreed to hold Red Cross talks early next month to stage the reunions around Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated in both Koreas and falls on Sept. 27.

The presidential office views the family reunions as something that could test whether North Korea is serious about improving soured relations with South Korea.

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans remain separated since the Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Family reunions are a pressing humanitarian issue on the Korean Peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and wish to see their long-lost relatives before they die.

There are no direct means of contact between ordinary civilians of the two countries that remain divided by a heavily fortified border.

In 2014, the two sides held a series of family reunions for the first time in more than three years. (Yonhap)