North Korea sends friendship letter to South Korea

North Korea's National Defense Commission penned a friendly letter to South Korea on Friday seeking inter-Korean dialogue.

KCNA, Pyongyang's official news agency, aired the commission's open letter.

It is our determination to create an atmosphere of reconciliation and unity, completely halt hostile military acts, realize the reunion of separated families and relatives, resume the tour of Mt. Kumgang and reenergize multi-faceted north-south cooperation and exchanges.

The conciliatory tone of North Korea's letter on Friday was starkly different from the aggressive tone a week earlier when Pyongyang warned the U.S. and South Korea to cancel joint military exercises or else face "unimaginable calamities and disasters."

The commission claimed that the earlier threat was misconstrued, asserting that Pyongyang had "urged" Seoul "to halt drills for a war of aggression to be staged against their compatriots in collusion with outside forces" and did not ask South Korea to halt "ordinary military drills."

[Yonhap News Agency]