PANMUNJOM/GOYANG, South Korea, April 27 (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap) -- South and North Korea agreed Friday to hold reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on the occasion of Liberation Day in August.

The agreement was part of a joint declaration issued after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a historic summit earlier in the day at the truce village of Panmunjom.

"South and North Korea agreed to make efforts to resolve humanitarian issues that derived from inter-Korean division and to hold Red Cross talks to discuss overall issues over divided families and reunions," the statement said.

"The two sides agreed to proceed with reunions of separated families on the occasion of August 15," it added, referring to the day marking Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

The agreement marks a turnaround from the North's stance that, in exchange for reunion events, Seoul should return 12 female North Koreans who worked at a restaurant in China and defected to South Korea en masse in 2016.

Seoul puts priority on resolving the issue, as more aging Koreans have passed away without being able to meet their kin on the opposite side of the tense border.

About 55 percent of an estimated 131,530 South Koreans on the waiting list for reunions have died as of the end of March, according to Seoul's unification ministry. The last reunion event was held in October 2015.

The statement also showed that the two sides agreed to facilitate exchanges and cross-border visits at various levels.

They will seek to hold a joint event to mark the anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit, held June 15, 2000.