DPRK may call off family reunions

Pyongyang wants Seoul to scrap military exercises with Washington

Barely a day after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea agreed to resume reunions for divided families, Pyongyang threatened on Thursday to drop out of the deal unless Seoul scraps planned military drills with the United States.

"It's outrageous that (the ROK) is pushing ahead with aggressive war maneuvering at a time when both sides reached a crucial agreement to realize national reconciliation and cooperation," said the DPRK's top military body, the National Defense Commission.

Dialogue and exercises for a war of aggression "cannot go hand in hand", it added.

In a rare example of cross-border cooperation, officials from the two neighbors agreed on Wednesday to hold a reunion Feb 15 to 20 for several hundred family members separated by the Korean War (1950-53).

It would be the first such event in more than three years and the accord was hailed as a possible harbinger of warmer ties between the archrivals.

But Thursday's statement cast doubt on that prospect.

Seoul and Washington are set to start a series of annual military exercises at the end of the month, and Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded that they be called off.

The commission voiced particular outrage over what it said were US B-52 bombers "carrying out nuclear strike drills" off the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday as the talks on the reunions were being held.

"At the time when the agreement was made on reunions of separated families and relatives at Panmunjom, a formation of US B-52 strategic bombers from Guam was carrying out nuclear strike practices all day over Korea's west sea, aiming at us," a spokesman for the commission was quoted as saying.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency cited a military source as confirming that a single B-52 had flown an unspecified exercise off the west coast.

The ROK Defense Ministry vowed that the joint drills at the end of the month would go ahead and reiterated that the exercises and the family reunions should not be linked.

"We will proceed with our drills normally, regardless of the reunions for separated families," said a ministry spokesman.

At a news conference in Washington after the joint agreement on resuming reunions was reached, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki stressed that she was "not at all" aware of any move to call off the exercises.

"These exercises occur around the same time every year and are a clear demonstration of the US commitment to the alliance (with Seoul)," she said.

As well as the joint drills, the DPRK's defense commission also condemned "slanderous" attacks in the ROK media, with special reference to reports of leader Kim Jong-un's recent visit to an orphanage.

A picture of Kim wearing shoes while interacting with the orphans in their dormitory was pilloried in the ROK. The Chosun Ilbo, a leading conservative ROK daily, said it displayed an "unimaginable" lack of manners.

Koreans never wear outdoor shoes inside the home - especially not in living areas.

"We cannot but reconsider the implementation of an agreement that was already reached as long as there is a continued move to hurt the dignity of our supreme leadership and slander our system," the commission said.

AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 02/07/2014 page12)