Families from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, torn asunder by a civil war decades ago, reunited Wednesday in what marks the second round of such an event.

Photo released by Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 1, 2010, shows family members from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea meeting each other at the Mount Kumgang resort in the DPRK. The first stage of reunion of separated families and relatives from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the South Korea concluded at Mt. Kumgang resort on Monday. (Xinhua/KCNA)

The event follows the pervious three-day reunion, the first of its kind in a year, which offered some 430 South Koreans and 97 from the DPRK a rare chance for rendezvous.

The latest reunion comes after a series of Red Cross between Seoul and Pyongyang that has bogged down due to their differences on resuming cross-border tours to the Mount Kumgang.

South Korea refuses to reopen the tour program, once a rare source of hard cash for the DPRK, unless it is allowed to look into a shooting death of a South Korean tourist there in 2008.

It also pressed Pyongyang to regularly hold family reunions and work on major humanitarian issues including prisoners of war and abducted South Koreans.

Pyongyang, in response, demanded 500,000 tons of rice and 300, 000 tons of fertilizer in return for budging on such issues. Seoul, which recently sent its first government-funded rice aid in three years to the DPRK, has been adamant in its stance that reuniting families and reopening the stalled tour program are two separate issues.

The two sides are to hold yet another round of Red Cross talks on Nov. 25.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet