More than 430 South Koreans, from 97 families and aged 12 to 60 years, were bused across the demilitarized zone - the border -- to North Korea's resort of Mount Kumgang on coast of the Sea of Japan.

The three-day visits are being organized with the help of the International Red Cross which provides the facilities, including tents and food for families. Hundreds of families have been permitted reunion meetings since they began in 2000.

But this week's politically sensitive reunions are the first since October 2009 for the two countries that remain officially at war since signing a cease-fire in 1953. The cease-fire, which ended three years of fighting, divided the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel that has acted as the nearly 155-mile border and created the two countries.

The 5,400-foot Mount Kumgang in the Kumgangsan tourist region, is around 30 miles from the border and 133 miles north of Seoul and 130 miles east of Pyongyang.

The resort was opened in 1998 and is an important hard currency earner for the cash-strapped North. The official money is the U.S. dollar and most of the staff are ethnic Chinese and few North Koreans work there in the hotels and restaurants that were developed by Hyundai Asan, based in South Korea but a trusted business partner of the North.

Hyundai Asan is the property development division of South Korean conglomerate Hyundai Group, also the maker of automobiles. HA is a major investor in North Korea, managing and, apart from the resort, manages road and rail buildings and operations. It also is the main developer behind the Kaesong Industrial Park project, a special economic zone in the North close to the border where South Korean firms are allowed to set up a business to take advantage of cheap labor.

Hyundai Asan is in protracted discussions with the North Korean government to expand the Mount Kumgang site with a ski resort and a golf course.

Apart being known throughout both Koreas for its natural beauty, it is also known for a fatal shooting of a South Korean woman by North Korean troops in July 2008. The 53-year-old tourist was shot after she allegedly entered a military area while walking on the resort's beach.

North Korea said the death was the responsibility of South Korea but Seoul halted tourist operations to the Kumgangsan tourist region in protest over the incident.

The families on the latest visit had a reminder of the political and military tensions constantly surrounding family reunions. South Korean media reported a shooting incident across the border at Hwacheon, around 56 miles north east of Seoul.

North Korean soldiers allegedly fired two rounds toward a South Korean border patrol, which returned fire three times.

"The reunions will go ahead as scheduled, despite the firing," Lee Jong-joo, an official from the South Korean Unification Ministry, said.

Tensions, however, are easing between the two antagonists. The first military talks between the North South Korea in almost two years took place at the beginning of last month at the so-called truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone.

While they ended in a standoff, with no further meetings planned, they also signaled a thawing of political relations after the Cheonan incident in March that killed 46 sailors.

South Korea continues to demand an apology from North Korea for allegedly sinking its navy's boat. But North Korea continues to claim it wasn't responsible, despite an international investigation -- dismissed by Pyongyang -- that pointed toward the North being responsible.

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