SEOUL, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- North Korea warned Thursday that it would withdraw from the scheduled family reunions announced a day earlier if the annual U.S.-South Korea joint military drills go forward.
The North Korean National Defense Commission issued a statement aired on state-run radio Thursday that warned, "Dialogue and exercises of aggression cannot go hand in hand." A spokesman for the Commission's North Korean Policy Department said, "The reckless act of war is a violent violation and infringement of humanitarianism. ... It does not make sense to carry out the reunion of families, who were separated due to the War, during a dangerous nuclear war practice."
South Korean Unification Minister Rhoo Kihl-jae responded to the North's threatened withdrawal from the family reunion deal: "If such agreements get turned around repeatedly, it cannot move forward. ... We've seen these in the past several decades. To expand the trust, I want to say that the agreement must be kept."
South Korea's Ministry of Defense said Thursday that the scheduled U.S.-South Korea military drills will go forward.
On Wednesday, North and South Korea had agreed to host a new round of family reunions from February 20-25 at the Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea's east coast for approximately 100 people separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War.
[Yonhap News Agency] [CNN]
