In a further sign of thawing relations, North and South Korea agreed Friday to hold a new round of family reunions next month to allow hundreds of elderly Koreans to meet their family members for the first time since the Korean War separated them nearly 60 years ago. Also on Friday, North Korea agreed to release four South Korean fishermen on Saturday, the South's Unification Ministry said in a statement. The fishermen have been held in North Korea since their boat drifted into the North's waters on July 30 after developing a malfunction in its navigation system. The two Koreas have not held family reunions for nearly two years. Their resumption and the release of the fishermen will mark rare gestures of reconciliation after two years of tension, which culminated with a North Korean nuclear test in May and subsequent U.N. sanctions. With the two agreements, North Korea appeared to be pursuing what some analysts in Seoul have dubbed a 'charm offensive.' After months of belligerent statements and provocative moves, such as a nuclear test and a series of missile launchings, North Korea has recently begun softening its tone in what analysts said was an attempt to draw the United States and South Korea to the negotiating table. In recent weeks, North Korea has released two American journalists and a South Korean worker, all of whom were held in the North for months on charges of hostile acts. It also sent a delegation to the funeral of the former South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung last week. For years, North Korea has been alternating brinkmanship and conciliatory gestures in dealing with Seoul. So far, however, it has not signaled any change in its pursuit of nuclear weapons, the primary concern of the U.S. and South Korean governments. According to the deal on reunions struck after three days of talks between Red Cross officials from both sides, 100 South Koreans will travel to the North to meet their North Korean relatives from Sept. 26 to 28. The talks were held at the Diamond Mountain resort in southeastern North Korea, where the family reunions are scheduled to take place. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 100 North Koreans will travel to Diamond Mountain to meet their South Korean relatives. After their first summit meeting in 2000, the two Koreas held regular family reunions. North Korea suspended them after President Lee Myung-bak, a hard-liner on the North, took office in early 2008. But North Korea has begun reaching out to Seoul and Washington in recent weeks. Since Red Cross talks were announced this week, elderly South Koreans have been visiting the Red Cross Society in Seoul to apply for reunions. In South Korea, 100 people are to be selected by lottery. The list will be sent to the North Korean authorities, who will then locate their relatives in the South -- perhaps just one person, or a few -- and the authorities will bring them to Diamond Mountain. The same basic process will apply to the North Korean side, although the North is said to give priority to citizens who are loyal to the Communist Party. 